The father thanked the old woman and hurried back home again, and very soon after it was time to set out for Oh’s house.
The man travelled along till he came to the wood and the place where he had come twice already, and he stood there and cried, “Oh! Oh!”
Then Oh appeared before him. “Here I am,” said Oh, “ready and waiting for you. This time, as before, I tell you that if you know your son when you see him you shall take him away with you, but if, this time, you do not know him, then he is mine forever.”
“Very well,” said the man, “that is a bargain.”
Then Oh took him down to the underworld. He called to a flock of doves that was perched on the roof and scattered a handful of peas on the ground for them. The doves flew down all about them and began to peck up the peas; but one dove would not eat but sat mournfully on a low bough and looked at them, and its eyes were full of tears.
“This one is my son,” cried the man, pointing to the dove that wept.
As soon as he said this the dove changed its shape and became a young man, and this was the son, though he had become so fine and tall and handsome in these three years that his father could scarcely recognize him.
Then Oh was in a fine rage. He danced with fury and tore his beard.
“Very well,” he cried, “he is yours now, but you shall not keep him long, and when I once get him back again he is mine forever.”
But the lad paid no heed to his threats. He and his father were soon on the upper earth again, and they set out for home, one foot before the other.