Were it not that God in heaven for them in kindness cared.
Hagen now no longer need live without a fellow;
Those good and lovely maidens soon found the little waif in a rocky hollow.
[75]
When, crawling to his hiding, they the child did see,
It might, so thought the maidens, a dwarfish goblin be,
Or perhaps it was a water-oaf, from out the sea up-driven;
But when the boy came near them, at once a welcome kind to him was given.
[76]
Hagen was ware of the maidens, as into their cave they stole,