most beside himself with delight. "Oh," said he to his
sister, "let me go and see the hunt: I can no longer refrain;" and he
begged hard till she consented.

"But," said she, "when you return at evening I shall have shut my door
against the wild huntsmen, and in order that I may know you, knock
and say, 'My little sister, let me in;' but if you do not say so, I
shall not open the door."

Now off sprang the roe, and was so happy to find himself in the open
air. The king and his huntsmen saw the beautiful beast and set off
after him, but they could not catch him; for when they thought they
had certainly got him, he sprang over a bush and disappeared. When it
was dark he galloped up to the little house, knocked, and cried, "My
little sister, let me in." And when the door was opened he sprang in,
and rested all night on his pretty little bed. Next morning the hunt
began again, and when the roe heard the blast of the horns, and the
"Ho! ho!" of the hunters, he could not rest, and cried, "Sister, open
the door; I must go."

His sister opened the door and said, "But mind you must be back in the
evening and make your little speech, that I may let you in."

When the king and his huntsmen saw the white roe with the gold band
once more, they all rode after him, but he was too quick and agile for
them. This chase lasted the whole day; at last, towards evening, the
hunters surrounded him, and wounded him with an arrow in the foot, so
that he was forced to limp and go slowly. One of the hunters, creeping
softly after him to the little house, heard him say, "My sister, let
me in," and saw that the door was opened and immediately shut to
again; so he went back to the king, and told him all he had seen and
heard.

"We will have another hunt to-morrow," said the king.

The little sister was greatly alarmed when she saw her white roe was
wounded; she washed off the blood, laid herbs upon the place, and
said, "Go now to thy bed, dear Roe, and get well."

The wound, however, was so slight that the next morning he felt
nothing of it, and when he heard the noise of the hunt, he said, "I
cannot keep away; I must go, and nothing shall keep me."

His sister cried and said, "Now you will go and be killed, and leave
me here alone in the forest, forsaken by all the world; I will not let
you go out."

"Then I shall die here of grief," answered the roe: "for when I hear
the sound of the horn, I do feel as if I could jump out of my shoes."