The Blue-Haired Ogre 81

follow this advice; but somehow, when the
hare said that word “home,” he thought of
the bad times there, and saw his mother’s
pale face bending over the baby, and he said
in a low voice—

“Thank you, little brother; and now, if
you please, I will go.”

So he stumbled over the rough ground
to the fir-tree where, as the hare had said,
was the edge of the wood, and beyond it
a broad common of brown bracken and
heather, which looked like the edge of the
world, and, where the sun had sunk in a
fiery ball, a dark bank of cloud stretched
right across the horizon. He wondered
which way the ogre would come, but he
had not to wait long, for the sound of heavy
crunching steps and of loud breathing made
him look round, and there was a monstrous
and mis-shapen figure stalking along, and
the light was still clear enough for him to
make out that his hair and beard were quite
blue. His eyes were fixed upon .the west,

and as he came nearer Hans thought they
F