When the spirits returned, weary and empty-handed, the Old Boy asked if they had not noticed anything unusual on their journey. "Nothing at all," they answered, "but a brook on the plain, with a single fish swimming in it." The old man growled angrily, "There they were! there they were!" Immediately he threw open the doors of the fifth pen and let out the spirits, [Pg 181] commanding them to drink up the water of the brook, and to capture the fish; and the spirits flew off like the wind. The travellers were just approaching the edge of a wood, when the maiden stopped, saying, "All is not as it should be. The reel moves again in my hand." They looked round, and saw another cloud in the sky, darker than the first, and with red borders. "These are our pursuers," she cried, and turned the reel three times round in her hand, saying: "Hear me, reel, and reel, O hear me; Change us both upon the instant: I'll become a wild rose-briar, And my love a rose upon it." Instantly the maiden was changed into a wild rose-bush, and the youth hung upon it in the form of a rose. The spirits rushed away over their heads, and did not return for some time; but they saw nothing of the brook and the fish, and they did not trouble about the wild rose-tree. As soon as their pursuers were gone, the rose-tree and the rose again became a maiden and a youth, and after their short rest they hurried away. "Have you found them?" cried the old man, [Pg 182] when the spirits returned and crouched before him. "No," answered their leader; "we found neither brook nor fish on the plain." "Did you see nothing else remarkable on the way?" asked their master. The leader answered, "We saw nothing but a wild rose-bush on the edge of the wood, with a single rose upon it." "Fools!" cried the old man, "there they were! there they were!" He threw open the door of the seventh pen, and sent out his most powerful spirits to search for the fugitives. "Bring them me just as you find them, for I must have them, dead or alive. Tear up the accursed rose-tree by the roots, and bring everything else with you that looks strange." And the spirits rushed forth like a tempest. The fugitives were just resting in the shade of a wood, and strengthening themselves for further efforts with food and drink. Suddenly the maiden cried out, "All is not right, for the reel feels as if it was being pulled from my bosom. We are certainly again pursued, and the danger is close at hand, but the wood still hides us from our enemies." Then she took the reel from her bosom, [Pg 183] and turned it over three times in her hand, saying: "Hear me reel, and reel, O hear me; To a puff of wind transform me, To a gnat transform my lover."