So the younger brother lay down near his mother to sleep; the elder kept watch with his gun. Then he thought within himself, and said, ‘Great God! wherever are we in these great forests? Surely we soon must perish.’ He climbed up a high tree, and looked all round, till a light flashed in his eyes. When he saw the light, he took his hat from his head, and let it drop.[1] Then he climbed down, and looked to see if his mother was all right. From the spot where his hat lay he walked straight forward for a good distance, a whole half hour. Then he observed a fire. Who were there but four-and-twenty robbers, cooking and drinking? He went through the wood, keeping out of their sight, and loaded his gun; and, just as one of them was taking a drink of wine, he shot the jug right from his lips, so that only the handle was left in his hand. And his gun was so constructed that it made no report.
Then the robber said to his comrade, ‘Comrade, why won’t you let me alone, but knock the jug out of my mouth?’
‘You fool, I never touched you.’
He took a pull out of another jug, and the lad loaded again. He sat on a tree, and again shot the jug—shot it away from his mouth, so that the handle remained in his hand.
Then the first robber said, ‘Will you leave me alone, else I’ll pay you out with this knife?’
But his comrade stepped up to him, looking just like a fool; at last he said, ‘My good fellow, I am not touching you. See, it is twice that has happened; maybe it is some one in the forest. Take your gun, and let’s go and look if there is not some one there.’
They went and they hunted, searched every tree, and found him, the forester’s son, sitting on a tree at the very top. They said to him, ‘You earth-devil, come down. If you won’t, we’ll shoot at you till you fall down from the tree.’
But he would not come. Again they ordered him. What [[146]]was the poor fellow to do? He had to come. When he was down, they each seized him by an arm, and he thought to himself, ‘Things look bad with me. I shall never see my mother and brother again. They’ll either kill me, or tie me up to a tree.’
They brought him to the fire and asked him, ‘What are you?—are you a craftsman?’
‘I am one of your trade.’