“Do you say that?” asked Fin.
“I do. And do you know who will do it?”
“I do not.”
“I will tell you. In the Eastern World lives a sister of this king, a savage hag and a terrible witch. This hag went to the Eastern World because she had a dispute with her brother. She is ungrateful, and full of malice; she comes now and steals away her brother’s children to leave him without heirs to his kingdom. When she finds this room closed on every side, and sees no other way of reaching the child, she will climb to the roof, and stretch her arm down to catch the king’s little son, and take him away with her.”
Lazy Back sat down near the hearth, and swore a great oath that if the hag thrust her hand down, he would hold her or keep the hand.
A little after midnight, Hearing Ear said, “I hear the hag; she is making ready to leave her castle in the Eastern World, and giving strict orders to guard the two children while she is gone.”
“Well,” said Far Feeler, “now I feel her going up through her own castle; now I feel her going out through the door on the roof. Her castle has no entrance except an opening in the roof, and the walls of it are as slippery as glass.”
“You will warn me when she is coming,” said Fin to Hearing Ear.
“Oh, I will,” said Hearing Ear; “I will not forget that.”