"Hard Necessity" and "Dire
Necessity"; but, nevertheless, I often lead men to great things and
teach them useful arts if they do but struggle with me valiantly.'

'Then I wish you would lead me to where I can get some rest,' said the
Prince, 'and teach me how I can procure food for myself and my poor
famishing horse.'

The monster rose up almost as tall as a steeple and suddenly laid his
great clutches upon the Prince's shoulders, saying: 'I will do both, if
you do but wrestle with me courageously. You must do it, for there is no
other way of escaping from my hands.'

The Prince had never been handled so roughly before, and as he was
brave, strong, and active, he made a great effort to free himself, and
tried a thousand ways, but to no purpose. The giant did not hurt him,
however, though he pressed him very hard, and at length he cried out:
'Ho, ho! you are a brave young man! Leave off struggling, and you shall
have some food and drink, such as you would never have tasted had you
not come to me.'

Thereupon he led him to his own coarse wooden table, and set before him
half of a hard brown loaf and a pitcher of water; but so hungry and
thirsty was the Prince that the bread seemed to him the best he had ever
eaten, and the water sweeter than any in the world.

'Unfasten your horse's bridle,' said Necessity, when the Prince had
done, 'and I will soon teach him where to find something to feed upon.'

The Prince did as the giant told him at once, and then his stern-looking
companion pointed to a wooden bedstead in a dark corner of the cave,
which looked as hard as his own face, saying: 'There, lie down and
sleep.'

'I can never sleep on that thing,' said the Prince.

'Ho, ho!' cried the other; 'Necessity can make any bed soft,' and taking
a bundle of straw, he threw it down on the bedstead.

Chapter IV

Sleep was sweeter to the Prince that night than it had ever been upon a
bed of down, and when he rose the next morning the monster's features
did not seem half so stern and forbidding as they had done at first. The
inside of the cave, too, looked much more light and blithesome, though
it was a dark and frowning place enough still, with hard rock all round,
and nothing but one window to let in a little sunshine.

Necessity, however, did not intend to keep the Prince there, and as
soon as he was up the giant said to him: 'Come, trudge; you must quit my
cave, and go on.'

'You must open the door for me, then,' s