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kings? Were you not reared in palaces?’ But the boy and girl answered him—

“‘No: we were reared in castles, and are the children of yonder lords: tell us how the spell that is upon them may be broken!’ and immediately the hunter turned from them with an angry look, poured out the milk upon the ground, and went away with his empty goblet.

“Loveleaves and Woodwender were sorry to see the rich cream spilled, but they remembered Lady Greensleeves’ warning, and seeing they could do no better, each got a withered branch and began to help the lords, scratching up the ground with the sharp end, and planting acorns; but their fathers took no notice of them, nor all that they could say; and when the sun grew warm at noon, they went again to drink at the running stream. Then there came through the oaks another hunter, older than the first, and clothed in yellow: about his neck there hung a silver bugle, and in his hand he carried an oaken goblet, carved with leaves and fruit, rimmed with silver, and filled with mead to the brim. This hunter also asked them to drink, told them the stream was full of frogs, and asked them if they were not a young prince and princess dwelling in the woods for their pleasure? But when Woodwender and Loveleaves an-