Part 2

4. Loki, who was a great eater, proposed a feast, and the king called Logi to come out and compete with him. A trough filled with meat was placed in the midst of the hall, and Loki beginning at one end soon ate all the flesh to the middle of the trough; but it was found that Logi had devoured both flesh and bones and the trough to boot. So the company adjudged Loki vanquished.

5. Next Thiolfi presented himself to run a race, and the king brought out a young man named Hugi to run with him. Hugi ran over the course and turning back met Thiolfi but just started. Then the king remarked that if Thor could not do better than his servants, it were well that he stay at home. Then a drinking-match was proposed, and a drinking horn was brought in. It was not very large, but was of great length, and the king remarked that any one of his subjects ought to empty it at a single draught, but none would fail to do so in three draughts. Thor drank long and deep, but the horn was as full as before; a second trial met with a similar failure. Then Thor straightened himself for a mighty effort and drank as the thirsty earth drinks of the rains from heaven. The liquor was diminished, but still the horn was nearly full. "I perceive," said the king, "that thou canst not be very thirsty, or thou wouldst drink more."

6. "What new trial do you propose?" said Thor. "We have a trifling game here," said the king, "in which we exercise none but children. It consists in merely lifting my cat from the ground, and I should not have mentioned it to the great Thor if I had not observed that thou art by no means what we took thee for." As he finished speaking, a large gray cat sprang into the hall. Thor put forth all his mighty strength three times without lifting her, though on the third trial one foot was raised from the floor.

7. "Well," said the king, "only one trial remains for thee. Thou must wrestle with somebody, and after thy failures to-day none of our men will wrestle with thee." So saying, the king called upon his old nurse, a toothless crone, shaking and trembling on the edge of the grave. Thor grasped her and put forth a mighty effort, but the old woman stood fast. At last she grasped him in turn, and he was thrown upon his knee. The king here interfered, and the contests came to an end. The travelers, however, were royally entertained, and after a good night's rest, and a bountiful breakfast, they bade the king good-by, and set out on their return.

8. Toward night they overtook a traveler, who proved to be Skrymer, their former companion and guide, and they encamped together in the very wood where they passed their first night together. The giant, perceiving the dejected looks of Thor, said, "Something appears to trouble thee; has thy journey gone amiss?" Thereupon Thor related the whole story of his failures. "Then," said the giant, "take heart, for thou hast performed great wonders, but hast been the victim of delusions. Observe me closely!" Thor looked, and saw that Skrymer and the king were one and the same person.

9. "Now," said the king, "Loki devoured all that was set before him, but Logi was Fire, and consumed trough and all. Hugi, with whom Thiolfi was running, was Thought, and not the swiftest runner can keep pace with that. The horn that thou failedst to empty had its lower end in the sea, and thou wilt see how the very ocean is lowered by thy draught. The cat is the animal that bears up the world, and thy last mighty effort caused the solid earth to shake as with an earthquake. The old woman with whom thou wrestledst was old age, and she throws everybody." The king then pointed out the place where Thor dealt his blows on the night of their first meeting, and lo! three mighty chasms showed where the solid mountains had been rent asunder.

PARABLES AND FABLES.

_VI.--THE WOLF AND THE DOG._

Lean, hungry wolf, fell in one moonlight night with a jolly, plump, well-fed mastiff, and after the first greetings were passed, the wolf accosted him: "You look extremely well," said he, "I think I never saw a more graceful, comely personage; but how comes it about, I beseech you, that you should live so much better than I? I may say, without vanity, that I venture fifty times more than you do, and yet I am almost ready to perish with hunger." The dog answered very bluntly: "Why, you may live as well as I if you will do the same services for it." The wolf pricked up his ears at the proposal, and requested to be informed what he must do to earn such plentiful meals. "Very little," answered the dog; "only to guard the house at night, and keep it from thieves and beggars." "With all my heart," rejoined the wolf, "for at present I have but a sorry time of it; and, I think, to change my hard lodging in the woods, where I endure rain, frost, and snow, for a warm roof over my head and plenty of food, will be no bad bargain." "True," said the dog, "therefore, you have nothing more to do than to follow me."

2. As they were jogging along together, the wolf spied a circle, worn round his friend's neck, and, being almost as curious as some of a higher species, he could not forbear asking what it meant. "Pooh! nothing," said the dog, "or at most a mere trifle." "Nay, but pray," urged the wolf, "inform me." "Why, then," said the dog, "perhaps it is the collar to which my chain is fastened; for I am sometimes tied up in the day-time, because I am a little fierce, and might bite people, and am only let loose at night. But this is done with design to make me sleep in the day, more than anything else, that I may watch the better in the night-time. As soon as the twilight appears, I am turned loose, and may go where I please. Then my master brings me plates of bones from the table with his own hands; and whatever scraps are left by the family fall to my share, for you must know I am a favorite with everybody. So, seeing how you are to live, come along! Why, what is the matter with you?" "I beg your pardon," replied the wolf, "but you may keep your happiness to yourself. I am resolved to have no share in your dinners. Half a meal, with liberty, is, in my estimation, worth a full one without it."

_VII.--PARABLE OF THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD._

1. For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard.

2. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

3. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the market-place,

4. And said unto them; go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way.

5. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.

6. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?

7. They say unto him, because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.

8. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, call the laborers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.

9. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny.

10. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.

11. And when they had received it, they murmured against the good man of the house,

12. Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.

13. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?

14. Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.

15. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?

16. So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

(_St. Matthew, xx. 1-16._)

_VIII.--PARABLE OF THE SOWER AND THE SEED._

1. The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.

2. And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

3. And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

4. And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way-side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

5. Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:

6. And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

7. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:

8. But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some a hundred-fold, some sixty-fold, some thirty-fold.

9. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

10. And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?

11. He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

12. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

13. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

(_St. Matthew xiii, 1-13._)

_IX.--PAIRING-TIME ANTICIPATED._

1. I shall not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau If birds confabulate or no; 'Tis clear that they were always able To hold discourse,--at least in fable; And even the child, who knows no better Than to interpret by the letter A story of a cock and bull, Must have a most uncommon skull.

2. It chanced then on a winter's day, But warm and bright and calm as May, The birds, conceiving a design To forestall sweet Saint Valentine, In many an orchard, copse, and grove, Assembled on affairs of love, And with much twitter and much chatter, Began to agitate the matter.

3. At length a bull-finch, who could boast More years and wisdom than the most, Entreated, opening wide his beak A moment's liberty to speak, And silence publicly enjoined, Briefly delivered thus his mind: "My friends! be cautious how ye treat The subject upon which we meet; I fear we shall have winter yet."

4. A finch, whose tongue knew no control, With golden wings and satin poll, A last year's bird, who ne'er had tried What marriage means, thus pert, replied: "Methinks the gentleman," quoth she, "Opposite in the apple-tree, By his good will, would keep us single 'Till yonder heaven and earth shall mingle, Or, what is likelier to befall, 'Till death exterminate us all. I marry without more ado! My dear Dick Redcap, what say you?"

5. Dick heard, and tweedling, ogling, bridling, Turning short round, strutting and sidling, Attested glad his approbation Of an immediate conjugation. Their sentiments so well expressed, Mightily influenced all the rest. All paired and each pair built a nest.

6. But though the birds were thus in haste, The leaves came out not quite so fast, And destiny, that sometimes bears An aspect stern on men's affairs, Not altogether smiled on their's. The wing of late breathed gently forth, Now shifted east and east by north. Bare trees and shrubs, but ill, you know Could shelter them from rain or snow.

7. Stepping into their nests they paddled; Themselves were chilled, their eggs were addled; Soon every father bird and mother, Grew quarrelsome and pecked each other, Parted without the least regret-- Except that they had ever met-- And learned in future to be wiser Than to neglect a good adviser.

8. Moral: Misses, the tale that I relate, This moral seems to carry-- Choose not alone a proper mate, But proper time to marry.

_Cowper._

LEGENDS.

_X.--THE GIFT OF TRITEMIUS._

1. Tritemius, of Herbipolis, one day, While kneeling at the altar's foot to pray, Alone with God, as was his pious choice, Heard from without a miserable voice, A sound which seemed of all sad things to tell, As of a lost soul crying out of hell.

2. Thereat the abbot paused; the chain whereby His thoughts went upward broken by that cry; And, looking from the casement, saw below A wretched woman, with gray hair a-flow, And withered hands held up to him, who cried For alms as one who might not be denied.

3. She cried, "For the dear love of Him who gave His life for ours, my child from bondage save,-- My beautiful, brave first-born, chained with slaves In the Moor's galley, where the sun-smit waves Lap the white walls of Tunis!" "What I can I give," Tritemius said: "my prayers." "O man Of God," she cried, for grief had made her bold, "Mock me not thus; I ask not prayers, but gold. Words will not serve me, alms alone suffice; Even while I speak, perchance, my first-born dies."

4. "Woman," Tritemius answered, "from our door None go unfed; hence are we always poor; A single soldo is our only store. Thou hast our prayers; what can we give thee more?"

5. "Give me," she said, "the silver candlesticks On either side of the great crucifix; God may well spare them on his errands sped, Or he can give you golden ones instead."

6. Then spake Tritemius: "Even as thy word, Woman, so be it! (Our most gracious Lord, Who loveth mercy more than sacrifice, Pardon me if a human soul I prize Above the gifts upon his altar piled!) Take what thou askest, and redeem thy child."

7. But his hand trembled as the holy alms He placed within the beggar's eager palms; And as she vanished down the linden shade, He bowed his head, and for forgiveness prayed.

8. So the day passed, and when the twilight came He woke to find the chapel all aflame, And, dumb with grateful wonder, to behold Upon the altar candlesticks of gold!

_Whittier._

_XI.--DAMON AND PYTHIAS._

1. About four hundred years before the Christian era, the government of Syracuse fell into the hands of Dionysius, a successful general of the army. He dispossessed the magistrates whom the people elected, and was therefore a usurper. While ruling justly in the main, he had a capricious temper, and often in his rage performed actions which he sincerely regretted in his sober moments. He was a good scholar, and very fond of philosophy and poetry, and he delighted to have learned men around him, and he had naturally a generous spirit; but the sense that he was in a position that did not belong to him, and that every one hated him for assuming it, made him very harsh and suspicious. It is of him that the story is told, that he had a chamber hollowed in the rock near his state prison, and constructed with galleries to conduct sounds like an ear, so that he might overhear the conversation of his captives; and of him, too, is told that famous anecdote which has become a proverb, that on hearing a friend, named Damocles, express a wish to be in his situation for a single day, he took him at his word, and Damocles found himself at a banquet with everything that could delight his senses, delicious food, costly wine, flowers, perfumes, music, but with a sword with the point almost touching his head, and hanging by a single horse-hair! This was to show the condition in which a usurper lived.

2. Thus Dionysius was in constant dread. He had a wide trench round his bedroom, with a drawbridge that he drew up and put down with his own hands; and he put one barber to death for boasting that he held a razor to the tyrant's throat every morning. After this he made his young daughters shave him; and by-and-by he would not trust them with a razor, and caused them to singe off his beard with hot nut-shells.

3. One philosopher, named Philoxenus, he sent to a dungeon for finding fault with his poetry, but he afterward composed another piece, which he thought so superior that he could not be content without sending for this adverse critic to hear it. When he had finished reading it, he looked to Philoxenus for a compliment; but the philosopher only turned round to the guards, and said dryly, "Carry me back to prison." This time Dionysius had the sense to laugh, and forgive his honesty.

4. All these stories may not be true; but that they should have been current in the ancient world, shows what was the character of the man of whom they were told, how stern and terrible was his anger, and how easily it was incurred. Among those who came under it was a Pythagorean called Pythias, who was sentenced to death, according to the usual fate of those who fell under his suspicion.

5. Pythias had lands and relations in Greece, and he entreated as a favor to be allowed to return thither and arrange his affairs, engaging to return within a specified time and suffer death. The tyrant laughed his request to scorn. Once safe out of Sicily, who would answer for his return? Pythias made reply that he had a friend who would become security for his return; and while Dionysius, the miserable man who trusted nobody, was ready to scoff at his simplicity, another Pythagorean, by name Damon, came forward and offered to become surety for his friend, engaging that, if Pythias did not return according to promise, to suffer death in his stead.

6. Dionysius, much astonished, consented to let Pythias go, marveling what would be the issue of the affair. Time went on, and Pythias did not appear. The Syracusans watched Damon, but he showed no uneasiness. He said he was secure of his friend's truth and honor, and that if any accident had caused his delay, he should rejoice in dying to save the life of one so dear to him.

7. Even to the last day Damon continued serene and content, however it might fall out; nay, even when the very hour drew nigh and still no Pythias. His trust was so perfect that he did not even grieve at having to die for a faithless friend who left him to the fate to which he had unwarily pledged himself. It was not Pythias's own will, but the winds and waves, so he still declared, when the decree was brought and the instruments of death made ready. The hour had come, and a few moments more would have ended Damon's life, when Pythias duly presented himself, embraced his friend, and stood forward himself to receive his sentence, calm, resolute, and rejoiced that he had come in time.

8. Even the dim hope they owned of a future state was enough to make these two brave men keep their word, and confront death for one another without quailing. Dionysius looked on more struck than ever. He felt that neither of such men must die. He reversed the sentence of Pythias, and calling the two to his judgment-seat, he entreated them to admit him as a third in their friendship.

_Charlotte M. Yonge._

_XII.--KING CANUTE._

1. Upon his royal throne he sat In a monarch's thoughtful mood; Attendants on his regal state, His servile courtiers stood, With foolish flatteries, false and vain, To win his smile, his favor gain.

2. They told him e'en the mighty deep His kingly sway confessed; That he could bid its billows leap, Or still its stormy breast! He smiled contemptuously and cried, "Be then my boasted empire tried!"

3. Down to the ocean's sounding shore The proud procession came, To see its billows' wild uproar King Canute's power proclaim, Or, at his high and dread command, In gentle murmurs kiss the strand.

4. Not so thought he, their noble king, As his course he seaward sped; And each base slave, like a guilty thing, Hung down his conscious head: He knew the ocean's Lord on high! They, that he scorned their senseless lie.

5. His throne was placed by ocean's side, He lifted his scepter there, Bidding, with tones of kingly pride, The waves their strife forbear; And while he spoke his royal will, All but the winds and waves were still.

6. Louder the stormy blast swept by, In scorn of idle word; The briny deep its waves tossed high, By his mandate undeterred, As threatening, in their angry play, To sweep both king and court away.

7. The monarch, with upbraiding look, Turned to the courtly ring; But none the kindling eye could brook Even of his earthly king; For in that wrathful glance they see A mightier monarch wronged than he!

8. Canute, thy regal race is run; Thy name had passed away, But for the meed this tale hath won, Which never shall decay: Its meek, unperishing renown Outlasts thy scepter and thy crown.

9. The Persian, in his mighty pride, Forged fetters for the main, And, when its floods his power defied, Inflicted stripes as vain; But it was worthier far of thee To know thyself than rule the sea!

_Bernard Barton._

_XIII.--A NORSEMAN'S SWORD._

1. The smelting of iron in the north of Europe is believed to have commenced with the Finns or Laplanders, the original inhabitants of Scandinavia, who then occupied the localities where the best ores are still found. The diminutive stature of these people compared with that of their Gothic invaders, their skill in penetrating the bowels of the earth in search of ores, the smoke of their collieries, the flame and thunder of their furnaces and forges, and, above all, the excellent temper of the weapons wrought by them--all these conspired to render them objects of superstitious wonder to the Goths.

2. The legendary stories of that people are filled with strange tales of the northern dwarfs, who lived in the solid rock, and possessed magic skill in all the various arts of the smith. One of these legends may be worth citing, and the rather, because it relates to Vanlander, the Scandinavian Vulcan, of whom many traditions are extant, even in England, where he is styled Wayland Smith. At the age of thirteen Vanlander was apprenticed by his father, the giant Vade, to two of the dwarfs who dwelt in the interior of the mountain, and he applied himself so faithfully to their instructions, that in two years he equaled his masters in knowledge of all the arts of smithery, both black and white.

3. Being at the court of King Nidung, where his dexterity as a smith became known, a rivalship arose between him and Amilias, principal smith to the king. Amilias challenged Vanlander to a trial of skill, upon condition that the life of the vanquished should be at the disposal of the victor. The terms proposed were that Vanlander should forge a sword, and Amilias a helmet, cuirass, and other defensive armor, and a twelvemonth was allowed for preparation. If the sword of Vanlander penetrated the armor of Amilias, the former was to be declared the victor, if otherwise, his life was forfeited to his rival.