"I will mend the sword and Siegfried shall use it to slay the dragon."
He folded the baby close in his rough, black little arms.
"A few more years, a few more years," he gurgled in glee, "and Mimi"s hands shall clutch the precious gold."
SIEGFRIED AND HIS FRIENDS
Mimi took good care of Siegfried.
When the boy had grown large enough to play about in the woods, Mimi made for him a little silver horn.
Siegfried loved all the birds and the wild animals.
He knew they were his best friends, for something in Mimi"s face always showed him that the dwarf was false.
Siegfried would wander out into the forest with his silver horn swinging from his shoulder.
He would blow his little horn song, and his forest friends would hear the call and come to play with him.
He watched the birds as they built their nests.
He listened to the father bird as he warbled his pretty little love songs.
How sweetly he sang to the mother bird while she sat upon the nest!
And when the little eggs had told their secret, both the father and the mother birds carried food to the babies.
Siegfried saw how tenderly the mother foxes, wolves, and bears cared for their babies.
From these friends in the forest he learned what love is.
Never for all the world would he have stolen one baby from its mother.
But it was when he watched the love-light in the eyes of the mother deer that he would shut his eyes and try to dream that he too had a loving mother.
THE BROKEN SWORD
Mimi always pretended to be Siegfried"s father, and he pretended to love Siegfried.
But Siegfried knew there was no love in Mimi"s heart.
Daily Siegfried grew larger and stronger.
Mimi continually boasted of his work at the forge.
Often he said: "No one in this world can make such marvelous swords as Mimi."
Siegfried urged him to make one sword after another, but as fast as they were made the boy would shatter them to bits with one blow on the dwarf"s forge.
Then he would cry in disgust: "Nonsense, Mimi. Your swords are mere toys. Just like little switches.
"Either make me a good strong sword or quit your bragging."
Mimi always kept the pieces of Siegmund"s sword carefully hidden.
While Siegfried roamed through the woods, the dwarf would work for hours trying to mend the magic blade, but its hard steel would never yield either to his fire or his hammer.
Mimi grew tired and discouraged.
"I can never mend it," he groaned.
A BIG BROWN BEAR
Siegfried grew to be a young man.
Often he saw his reflection in the water, and he said:--
"I am not Mimi"s son. The babes in the forest all look like their parents. I do not look like Mimi."
Siegfried"s reflection showed him a fearless face with large, honest eyes.
About the face fell a wealth of waving, sunny hair.
One day, as he studied this reflection and thought of the blinking, sneaking little black Mimi, he said:--
"I will endure his falsehoods no longer. I know he is not my father.
This very day I am going to make him tell me who I am!"
Lifting his silver horn, he blew a loud blast.
Out of the woods came one of his good friends, a great brown bear.
"Come, Bruin," said Siegfried.
And he put a rope around Bruin"s neck.
"We will go to Mimi"s cave and we will make him tell us all we want to know."
Siegfried led the big bear to the mouth of Mimi"s cave.
When the cowardly Mind saw the bear, he crouched behind the forge and screamed:--
"Take him away! Oh, Siegfried, take him away!"
"Eat him, Bruin," laughed Siegfried, as Mimi trembled with fear.