"To my good health," replied the Shepherd. "To mine--to _mine_, you rascal, you vagabond!" stormed the King. "To mine, to mine, Your Majesty," was the answer. "But to _mine_--to my own!" roared the King, and beat on his breast in a rage. "Well, yes; to mine, of course, to my own," cried the Shepherd, and gently tapped his breast. The King was beside himself with fury and did not know what to do, when the Lord chamberlain interfered: "Say at once--say this very moment, 'To your health, Your Majesty,' for if you don't say it you will lose your life," he whispered. "No, I won't say it tell I get the Princess for my wife," was the Shepherd's answer. Now the Princess was sitting on a little throne beside the King, her father, and she look as sweet and lovely as a little golden dove. When she heard what the Shepherd said, she could not help laughing, for there is no denying the fact that this young shepherd with the blue eyes pleased her very much; indeed, he pleased her better than any king's son she had yet seen. But the King was not as pleasant as his daughter, and gave orders to throw the Shepherd into the white bear's pit. The guards led him away and thrust him into the pit with the white bear, who had had nothing to eat for two days and was very hungry. The door of the pit was hardly closed when the bear rushed at the shepherd; but when it saw his eyes it was so frightened that it was ready to eat itself. It shrank away into a corner and gazed at him from there, and in spite of being so famished, did not dare to touch him, but sucked its own paws from sheer hunger. The Shepherd felt that if he once removed his eyes off the beast he was a dead man, and in order to keep himself awake he made songs and sang them, and so the night went by. Next morning the Lord Chamberlain came to see the Shepherd's bones, and was amazed to find him alive and well. He led him to the King, who fell into a furious passion, and said: "Well, you have learned what it is to be very near death, and now will you say, 'To my very good health'?" But the Shepherd answered: "I am not afraid of ten deaths! I will only say it if I may have the Princess for my wife." "Then go to your death," cried the King, and ordered him to be thrown into the den with the wild boars.