How the little brother set free his big brothers

shoes sang in answer that they would run like the wind.
As he came along, the bear chief`s sister was looking out of the window, and took pity on this little brother, as she had on the two elder ones, and waited to see what the boy would do, when he found that the bear servant and the dog had already entered the mountain.
The little brother was certainly very much puzzled at not seeing anything of either of the animals, which had vanished suddenly out of his sight. He paused for an instant to think what he should do next, and while he did so he fancied he heard Redmouth`s voice on the opposite side of the mountain. With great difficulty he scrambled over steep rocks, and forced a path through tangled thickets; but when he reached the other side the sound appeared to start from the place from which he had come. Then he had to go all the way back again, and at the very top, where he stopped to rest, the barking was directly beneath him, and he knew in an instant where he was and what had happened.
`Let my dog out at once, bear chief!` cried he. `If you do not, I shall destroy your palace.` But the bear chief only laughed, and said nothing. The boy was very angry at his silence, and aiming one of his arrows at the bottom of the mountain, shot straight through it.
As the arrow touched the ground a rumbling was heard, and with a roar a fire broke out which seemed to split the whole mountain into pieces. The bear chief and all his servants were burnt up in the flames, but his sister and all that belonged to her were spared because she had tried to save the two elder boys from punishment.
As soon as the fire had burnt itself out the little hunter entered what was left of the mountain, and the first thing he saw was his two brothershalf bear, half boy.
`Oh, help us! Help us!` cried they, standing on their hind legs as they spoke, and stretching out their forepaws to him.
`But how am I to help you?` asked the little brother, almost weeping. `I can kill people, and destroy trees and mountains, but I have no power over men.` And the two elder brothers came up and put their paws on his shoulders, and they all three wept together.
The heart of the bear chief`s sister was moved when she saw their misery, and she came gently up behind, and whispered:
`Little boy, gather some moss from the spring over there, and let your brothers smell it.`
With a bound all three were at the spring, and as the youngest plucked a handful of wet moss, the two others sniffed at it with all their might. Then the bearskin fell away from them, and they stood upright once more.
`How can we thank you? How can we thank you?` they stammered, hardly able to speak; and fell at her feet in gratitude. But the bear`s sister only smiled, and bade them go home and look after the little girl, who had no one else to protect her.
And this the boys did, and took such good care of their sister that, as she was very small, she soon forgot that she had ever had a father and mother.