“You are double!” cried the girl, “like two hazel-nuts in one shell.”
“And two nuts out of one shell we are,” replied Andrei. “But who art thou, little wood-fairy? Perchance some witch in disguise, who will work our undoing.”
“Who can say?” answered the maiden. “Perhaps I am a witch—grandfather often says so; and, indeed, I have only been with him a week yet, and he has had no more of his old pain since I came.”
“We would straightway treat thee as an evil witch, then,” said Mirea, “and carry thee a prisoner to our castle, for having hunted upon our hills without leave.”
“We have a cruel mother, too, at our castle,” added Andrei.
“Good,” cried the maiden. “Her I must see. I am your prisoner!”
She called her attendant huntsman, gave him messages to her grandfather, and bade him bring horses to fetch her home; then she followed the brothers with a light step by the giddiest and steepest paths to the castle.
The lads’ mother, Dame Roxana, stood looking from the castle windows, and wondering what strange shepherd-boy her sons were bringing home with them. The dead bear was carried behind them, slung upon green boughs. As they drew near the castle Dame Roxana exclaimed in alarm, “It is a girl they have with them. Where can they have found her?”
The next moment the sound of youthful voices and footsteps re-echoed through courtyard and hall. “Mother,” cried Mirea, “here we bring thee a prisoner, a hunter who has spoilt our chase! What shall be his punishment?”