On the next night he became a woodman; and many were the nights he spent in going to and fro in the dark between his cave and the nearest margin of the forest, lopping off great branches and bearing them away for storage, and even uprooting saplings and bearing away these also, and, with a flint axe, felling young trees, and chopping them into lengths that were portable. He continued this night-work until both caves were neatly stacked with wood enough to serve his purpose for a longish while. And then--for he had thought out everything, with that thoroughness which is the virtue of slow minds--he wove two thick screens of osiers and withes, each screen rather bigger than either end of the tunnel. On the evening when the second of these was finished, he made in the dragon’s cave, not far from the left-hand side of the cave’s mouth, a thick knee-high heap of branches and logs, some of them dry, others green. He placed at the other side of the mouth two thick flat stones, one upon the other. Back in his own cave, he smeared with sheep’s fat a certain great stick of very dry pine-wood. * * * * * And on the following morning history began to repeat itself. With some variations, however. For example, it was not a puny little boy but a great strong man who, as the sun rose, came rushing with every symptom of terror down the western side of the hill. And the man was not really frightened. He only seemed so. He careered around the valley, howling now like one distraught. Responsive sheep, goats, geese, what not, made great noises of their own. From the mouths of caves and huts people darted and stood agape. Thol waved his arms wildly towards the cave upon the hill. People saw a great column of smoke climbing up from it into the sky. ‘A dragon! Another dragon!’ was Thol’s burthen. People gathered round him in deep wonder and agitation. He told them, in gasps, that he had come down early--very early--to look for mushrooms--and had looked back and--seen a dragon crawling up the hill. He said that he had seen it only for a moment or two: it crawled very quickly--far more quickly than the old one. He added that it was rather smaller than the old one--smaller and yet far more terrible, though its smoke was less black. Also, that it held high its head, not scorching the grass on its way. There was no panic. ‘O Thol,’ said one, ‘we need not fear the dragon, for here are you, to come between us and him.’ ‘Here by this stream,’ said another, ‘we shall presently bury him with great rejoicings, O high god.’