"Gold that lives and yet is not alive;
That comes neither from earth nor water;
Softer than silk but harder to weld than steel"
the princess murmured softly to herself. Then suddenly she gave a cry of joy. Setting down the candle, she slipped off her hood and shook down her hair, so that it fell all about her, glittering in the candle-light. "Is not this the magic gold?" she cried. "See! It lives and yet it is not alive. It comes neither from the earth nor from the water, and it is softer than silk and yet all the hammers in the world could not weld one strand of it."
The fairy cried aloud in his wonder and admiration. "It is indeed the magic gold."
"Then take it,—take it and weave your net," cried Goldenhair.
With hands that trembled with eagerness she drew from her pocket a pair of golden scissors that had been her mother's. With these she clipped strand after strand of the shiny locks, and they fell at the fairy's feet; they lay there in a shining heap.
"Enough! enough!" he cried.
"Then, quick," said the princess, "let us begin to knot them into a net."
"No need of that," answered the fairy. "There is a quicker way than that." Drawing his fairy sword from its sheath, he struck it lightly upon the shining locks.
"Fold on fold,
Magic gold,
Into a net be knotted and rolled,"