Part 11 (1/2)

”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.