nothing to him concerning his life. What if he should now bethink him of repenting. It seems as if he were now a little milder, and he does not threaten to slay me." And the godson shouted after the freebooter, "Hearken now! Above all, it becomes thee to repent, and not turn away from God."
The freebooter turned his horse. He drew his knife from his girdle and shook it at the godson. The godson was frightened, and ran into the bushes. But the freebooter did not pursue him; he only said, "Twice have I forgiven thee, old man—beware of the third time, for then I will kill thee!" This he said, and rode off. In the evening the godson went to water his stumps, and lo! one of them was putting forth shoots. A little apple-tree was growing out of it.
XII.
So the godson hid himself from men, and lived alone. One day his biscuits failed him. "Well," thought he, "now I must go and seek for roots." So he arose to seek them, and no sooner had he done so than he perceived a bag of biscuits hanging from a bough, and he took and ate. And when these biscuits were all gone, there came another basketful on the selfsame bough. So the godson lived on from day to day. One grief only plagued him—the fear of the freebooter. No sooner did he hear a freebooter coming than he hid himself, "lest he
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