of an old woman, who proves to be a witch, and makes him work for her in return for his board and lodging.  One day she takes him to the edge of a dry well, and bids him go down and get her the Blue Light which he would find at the bottom.  He consents, and she lets him down by a rope.  When he has secured the Light he signals to the old witch to draw him up, and when she has pulled him within her reach, she bids him give her the Light, he refuses to do so until he is quite out of the well, upon which she lets him fall to the bottom again.  After ruminating his condition for some time he bethinks him of his pipe, which is in his pocket—­ he may as well have a smoke if he is to perish.  So he lights his pipe at the Blue Light, when instantly there appears before him a black dwarf, with a hump on his back and a feather in his cap, who demands to know what he wants, for he must obey the possessor of the Blue Light.  The soldier first requires to be taken out of the well, and next the destruction of the old witch, after which he helps himself to the treasures in the hag’s cottage, and goes off to the nearest town, where he puts up at the best inn and gets himself fine clothes.  Then he determines to requite the King, who had sent him away penniless, so he summons the Dwarf[FN#390] and orders him to bring the King’s daughter to his room that night, which the Dwarf does, and very early in the morning he carries her back to her own chamber in the palace.  The princess tells her father that she has had a strange dream of being borne through the air during the night to an old soldier’s house.  The King says that if it was not a dream, she should make a hole in her pocket and put peas into it, and by their dropping out the place where she was taken to could be easily traced.  But the Dwarf when he transports her the second night discovers the trick, and strews peas through all the other streets, and the only result was the pigeons had a rare feast.  Then the King bids the princess hide one of her shoes in the soldier’s room, if she is carried there again.  A search is made for the shoe in every house the next day, and when it is found in the soldier’s room he runs off, but is soon caught and thrown into prison.  In his haste to escape he forgot to take the Blue Light with him.  He finds only a ducat in his pocket, and with this he bribes an old comrade whom he sees passing to go and fetch him a parcel he had left at the inn, and so he gets the Blue Light once more.  He summons the Dwarf, who tells him to be of good cheer, for all will yet be well, only he must take the Blue Light with him when his trial comes on.  He is found guilty and sentenced to be hung upon the gallows-tree.  On his way to execution he asks as a last favour to be allowed to smoke, which being granted, he lights his pipe and the Dwarf appears.  “Send,” says the soldier—­ “send all these people to the right about; as for the King, cut him into three pieces.”  The Dwarf lays about him with a will, and soon makes the crowd scuttle off.  The King begs hard for his life, and agrees to let the soldier have the princess for his wife and the kingdom afterwards.