So particular was the young smith that William spent the whole of another week in endeavoring to please him. This might have chafed the King, but that it agreed entirely with his desires to remain in that place, sleeping and eating at no cost to himself, and working so strenuously that his hands grew almost as hard as the metal he worked in; for the Lad now began to entrust him with small jobs of various sorts, although in the matter of the second shoe he refused to be satisfied. When Saturday came, however, the King contrived a shoe so much superior to any he had yet made that the Lad, examining it, was compelled to say, “It is better than the other.” Then Pepper, who always stood in a noose beside the door awaiting her moment, lifted up her near forefoot of her own accord, and the King took it in his hand. “How odd!” he exclaimed a moment later. “The nag has a stone in this foot also. It is not strange that she went so ill.” “It is not a stone,” said the Lad. “It is a pearl.” And he held out to the King a pearl of such a shining purity that it was as though it had been rounded within the spirit of a saint. “This makes you a rich man,” said the Lad moodily, “and you can journey whither you please.” But the King shook his head. “Keep it,” he said, “for you have lodged me for a week, and I have given you only the clumsy service of my hands.” “Very well,” said the Lad simply, and put the pearl in his pocket. “My Great-Aunt is expecting me. There’s a cake in the larder.” So saying he walked off, and the King was left alone. As before, he bathed himself and changed his linen, and left the contents of the larder untouched; and an hour before sunset he climbed the hill for the second time, and presently stood panting on the edge of the Ring. And again a pang of wonder that was akin to pain shot through his heart at the loveliness of the world below him. “Beautiful earth!” he cried once more, “how fair and dear you are become to me in your remoteness. But oh, if you appear so beautiful from this summit, what must you appear from the summit of the clouds?” And he glanced from the earth to the sky, and saw the sun running down his airy hill. “Dear Temptress!” he said, “how cunningly you would snare me from my purpose.” And he kissed his hand to her thrice, sealed up his lips, and entered the Ring.