ed the bright blade above his head.

He brought it down with all his strength upon the forge, and with a
mighty crash the huge rock fell in pieces.

Mimi sank in terror to the ground.

SIEGFRIED GOES TO FIGHT THE DRAGON

"Get up, you coward!" cried Siegfried.

"Now tell me what that thing is that I do not know. Fear? What is fear?
Why did you not teach it to me?"

The wicked dwarf slipped to Siegfried's side.

"I will teach you. Come with me. I will show you a horrible serpent,
lying at the door of Hate Cavern.

"There you will learn what fear is, if you can learn it any place in
this world.

"Have you never seen anything that made you shiver from head to foot and
made your heart beat fast?"

"I never have," calmly answered Siegfried. "Take me quickly, Mimi. I am
ready to learn."

At every step Mimi chuckled to himself:--

"The ring is mine! At last the ring is mine! Now all the world shall
kneel at my feet!"

"When he had gone as far as he dared, he pointed out the rest of the way
to Siegfried.

"Just through here," he said. "And I shall go back now. When the dragon
sees you it will be a terrible struggle! I shall wait anxiously for you,
my Siegfried!"

But as Siegfried vanished from sight, he rubbed his black hands together
and laughed:--

"Ah, it will be luck for Mimi if Siegfried and the dragon kill each
other!"

A WOOD-BIRD'S SONG

When Siegfried had gone on a little way, he stretched himself upon a
grassy mound beneath a tree to rest and think.

Looking up through the branches at the clear sky, he cried:--

"I am free! Free! Never again will I go back to that loathsome
Nibelung."

A bird in the tree began singing its sweet wood-song.

"How do you do, my little feathered friend!" said Siegfried. "I am sure
what you are singing is very sweet, but I cannot understand your words."

Then Siegfried cut a reed near by, and putting it to his lips, tried to
whistle answers to the little bird's notes.

His music did not sound much like the song of a bird.

"I give it up, my little friend," he said, and threw away the reed.

SIEGFRIED AND THE DRAGON

"I will blow you a song on my silver horn," said Siegfried to the bird.

"I often blow this little song. It is my call for a comrade. I long for
one. None better have ever come to me than the bears and foxes."

Loudly he blew his horn.

Soon there was a great crackling in the underbrush. The huge dragon
came, lashing its deadly tail