place the island was.

Their sharp eyes soon discovered the form of a man crouching behind
the bundles of sticks, and at first they felt a little frightened, and
started as if they would run away. But the youth remained so still,
that they took courage and laughed gaily to each other. 'What a
strange creature, let us try what he is made of,' said one, and she
stooped down and gave him a pinch.

Now the young man had a pin sticking in the sleeve of his jacket, and
the moment the girl's hand touched him she pricked it so sharply that
the blood came. The girl screamed so loudly that the people all ran
out of their huts to see what was the matter. But directly they caught
sight of the man they turned and fled in the other direction, and
picking up the goods they had brought with them scampered as fast as
they could down to the shore. In an instant, boat, people, and goods
had vanished completely.

In their hurry they had, however, forgotten two things: a bundle of
keys which lay on the table, and the girl whom the pin had pricked,
and who now stood pale and helpless beside the wood stack.

'You will have to make me your wife,' she said at last, 'for you have
drawn my blood, and I belong to you.'

'Why not? I am quite willing,' answered he. 'But how do you suppose we
can manage to live till summer comes round again?'

'Do not be anxious about that,' said the girl; 'if you will only marry
me all will be well. I am very rich, and all my family are rich also.'

Then the young man gave her his promise to make her his wife, and the
girl fulfilled her part of the bargain, and food was plentiful on the
island all through the long winter months, though he never knew how it
got there. And by-and-by it was spring once more, and time for the
fisher-folk to sail from the mainland.

'Where are we to go now?' asked the girl, one day, when the sun seemed
brighter and the wind softer than usual.

'I do not care where I go,' answered the young man; 'what do you
think?'

The girl replied that she would like to go somewhere right at the
other end of the island, and build a house, far away from the huts of
the fishing-folk. And he consented, and that very day they set off in
search of a sheltered spot on the banks of a stream, so that it would
be easy to get water.

In a tiny bay, on the opposite side of the island, they found the very
thing, which seemed to have been made on purpose for them; and as they
were tired with their lo