“It was lucky for you,” cried the son of the King of Lochlin, “to come in with the hound. Without that you’d have been done for. Who are you, and where are you going?”
“I am a man in search of a master.”
“I am seeking a man,” said the king’s son. “Will you take service with me?”
“I will,” answered Arthur.
He hired for a day and a year, and wages according to service.
Arthur went to work on the following morning, and his first task was to bring fagots from the forest. When he went to the forest, he found half of it green, and the other half dry. Nothing was growing in the dry part; all was withered and dead. Arthur collected dry fagots, and brought them to the castle. In the evening he spoke to the king’s son, and this is what he asked of him, “Why is half of your forest green, and the other half withered and dry?”
“A day and seven years ago,” said the king’s son, “a terrible serpent came the way, and took half of my forest for herself. In that part she is living till this time,—that is the green part. She knocked the life out of my half,—that is the dry part.”
“Why do you not take wood from the green part?” asked Arthur.
“Neither you nor all who ever came before you could do that,” said the son of the king. Next morning Arthur went out for fagots the second time. He stopped before the largest green tree to be found in the forest, and was cutting away at it. The moment the serpent saw this, she came out, and called, “Why are you cutting my timber?”
“I am cutting it because I am sorry to see you as you are,” said Arthur, “without a roof over you or a shelter of any kind. I wish to build a house to protect you.”