Here Ethelried stayed for many weeks, living like a king on the money that the fruit jewels brought him.  All this time the scissors were becoming little and rusty, because he never once used them, as the Fairy bade him, in unselfish service for others.  But one day he bethought himself of her command, and started out to seek some opportunity to help somebody.

Soon he came to a tiny hut where a sick man lay moaning, while his wife and children wept beside him.  “What is to become of me?” cried the poor peasant.  “My grain must fall and rot in the field from overripeness because I have not the strength to rise and harvest it; then indeed must we all starve.”

Ethelried heard him, and that night, when the moon rose, he stole into the field to cut it down with the giant scissors.  They were so rusty from long idleness that he could scarcely move them.  He tried to think of some rhyme with which to command them; but it had been so long since he had done any thinking, except for his own selfish pleasure, that his brain refused to work.

However, he toiled on all night, slowly cutting down the grain stalk by stalk.  Towards morning the scissors became brighter and sharper, until they finally began to open and shut of their own accord.  The whole field was cut by sunrise.  Now the peasant’s wife had risen very early to go down to the spring and dip up some cool water for her husband to drink.  She came upon Ethelried as he was cutting the last row of the grain, and fell on her knees to thank him.  From that day the peasant and all his family were firm friends of Ethelried’s, and would have gone through fire and water to serve him.

After that he had many adventures, and he was very busy, for he never again forgot what the Fairy had said, that only unselfish service each day could keep the scissors sharp and shining.  When the shepherd lost a little lamb one day on the mountain, it was Ethelried who found it caught by the fleece in a tangle of cruel thorns.  When he had cut it loose and carried it home, the shepherd also became his firm friend, and would have gone through fire and water to serve him.

The grandame whom he supplied with fagots, the merchant whom he rescued from robbers, the King’s councillor to whom he gave aid, all became his friends.  Up and down the land, to beggar or lord, homeless wanderer or high-born dame, he gladly gave unselfish service all unsought, and such as he helped straightway became his friends.

Day by day the scissors grew sharper and sharper and ever more quick to spring forward at his bidding.

One day a herald dashed down the highway, shouting through his silver trumpet that a beautiful Princess had been carried away by the Ogre.  She was the only child of the King of this country, and the knights and nobles of all other realms and all the royal potentates were prayed to come to her rescue.  To him who could bring her back to her father’s castle should be given the throne and kingdom, as well as the Princess herself.