"'Oh!' said the white bear, 'then you're not the right one;' and with that he hunted her home again.
"The next Thursday he came again, and it all went just the same. The army went out to withstand the white bear; but neither iron nor steel bit on his hide, and so he dashed them down like grass till the king begged him to hold hard, and then he sent out to him his next oldest daughter, and the white bear took her on his back and went off with her. So when they had travelled far and farther than far, the white bear asked,—
"'Have you ever seen clearer, and have you ever sat softer?'
"'Yes!' she said, 'in my father's hall I saw clearer, and on my mother's lap I sat softer.'
"Oh! then you are not the right one,' said the white bear, and with that he hunted her home again.
"The third Thursday he came again, and then he smote the army harder than he had done before; so the king thought he couldn't let him slay his whole army like that, and he gave him his third daughter in God's name. So he took her up on his back and went away far, and farther than far, and when they had gone deep, deep, into the wood, he asked her as he had asked the others, whether she had ever sat softer or seen clearer?
"'No! never!' she said.
"'Ah!' he said, 'you are the right one.'
"So they came to a castle which was so grand, that the one her father had was like the poorest place when set against it. There she was to be and live happily, and she was to have nothing else to do but to see that the fire never went out. The bear was away by day, but at night he was with her, and then he was a man. So all went well for three years; but each year she had a baby, and he took it and carried it off as soon as ever it came into the world. Then she got more and more dull, and begged she might have leave to go home and see her parents. Well! there was nothing to stop that; but first, she had to give her word that she would listen to what her father said, but not do what her mother wished. So she went home, and when they were alone with her, and she had told how she was treated, her mother wanted to give her a light to take back that she might see what kind of man he was.
"But her father said, 'No! she mustn't do that, for it will lead to harm and not to gain.'