To-morrow, when you come in sight of a very large castle, which will be surrounded with black water, the first thing you will do you will tie your horse to a tree, and you will see three beautiful swans in sight, and you will say, ’Swan, swan, carry me over in the name of the Griffin of the Greenwood,’ and the swans will swim you over to the earth.  There will be three great entrances, the first guarded by four great giants with drawn swords in their hands, the second by lions, the other by fiery serpents and dragons.  You will have to be there exactly at one o’clock; and mind and leave there precisely at two and not a moment later.  When the swans carry you over to the castle, you will pass all these things, all fast asleep, but you must not notice any of them.

“When you go in, you will turn up to the right; you will see some grand rooms, then you will go downstairs through the cooking kitchen, and through; a door on your left you go into a garden, where you will find the apples you want for your father to get well.  After you fill your wallet, you make all speed you possibly can, and call out for the swans to carry you over the same as before.  After you get on your horse, should you hear anything shouting or making any noise after you, be sure not to look back, as they will follow you for thousands of miles; but when the time is up and you get near my place, it will be all over.  Well now, my young man, I have told you all you have to do to-morrow; and mind, whatever you do, don’t look about you when you see all those frightful things asleep.  Keep a good heart, and make haste from there, and come back to me with all the speed you can.  I should like to know how my two brothers were when you left them, and what they said to you about me.”

[Illustration:  The Castle of Melvales

     Swan Swan,
     Carry me over,
     In the name of the Griffin of Greenwood.]

“Well, to tell the truth, before I left London my father was sick, and said I was to come here to look for the golden apples, for they were the only things that would do him good; and when I came to your youngest brother, he told me many things I had to do before I came here.  And I thought once that your youngest brother put me in the wrong bed, when he put all those snakes to bite me all night long, until your second brother told me ‘So it was to be,’ and said, ‘It is the same here,’ but said you had none in your beds.”

“Well, let’s go to bed.  You need not fear.  There are no snakes here.”

The young man went to bed, and had a good night’s rest, and got up the next morning as fresh as newly caught trout.  Breakfast being over, out comes the other horse, and, while saddling and fettling, the old man began to laugh, and told the young gentleman that if he saw a pretty young lady, not to stay with her too long, because she might waken, and then he would have to stay with her or to be turned into one of those unearthly monsters, like those he would have to pass by going into the castle.