And soon he heard it coming, roaring and raging from afar off, and at
last it came near, spitting fire, and with a tongue like a great spear,
and you could hear it roaring for miles, and it was making for the place
where the king's daughter was staked down. But when it came up to them,
the lad just hit it on the head with the bladder and the dragon fell
down dead, but before it died, it bit off the little boy's forefinger.
[Illustration: THE LITTLE BULL-CALF]
Then the lad cut out the dragon's tongue and said to the king's
daughter: "I've done all I can, I must leave you." And sorry she was he
had to go, and before he went she tied a diamond ring in his hair, and
said good-bye to him.
By-and-by, who should come along but the old king, lamenting and
weeping, expecting to see nothing of his daughter but the prints of the
place where she had been. But he was surprised to find her there alive
and safe, and he said: "How came you to be saved?" So she told him how
she had been saved, and he took her home to his castle again.
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