Page:Grimm's Fairy Tales.djvu/404

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386
THE TWO BROTHERS

in his mouth, and the head was at once joined on to the body, and the heart began to beat and life returned. The huntsman was very much alarmed when he awoke and found the king's daughter no longer there, and he thought to himself, "She wanted to be rid of me, that is why she went away while I was sleeping." Now the lion in his haste had put on his master's head wrong side before, but the huntsman was so full of trouble thinking on the king's daughter, that he never noticed this until he was about to begin his midday meal. He could not understand why his head should be turned the wrong way, and asked the animals what had befallen him while he was asleep. Then the lion related to him how he and the other animals had been so tired that they had all fallen asleep, and on awaking, had found him dead and his head cut off, and how the hare had fetched the root that brought him to life again, and how he, the lion, had in his haste put the head on the wrong way, but he assured his master that he could soon make it all right again. And with that, he cut off his master's head for the second time, turned it round, and the hare fastened it on again with the healing root.

Nevertheless the huntsman was very sad at heart, as he travelled about with his animals, and let them dance before the people. Now it came to pass that a year had just elapsed when he found himself once more in the same town in which the king lived, whose daughter he had rescued from the dragon, but this time the town was hung with scarlet.

"What is the meaning of this?" he asked the innkeeper; "a year ago when I was here the town was everywhere hung with black, why is it decked out to-day with scarlet?"

"It is just a year ago," replied the innkeeper, "that the