The sight was so terrible, that he turned on his heel, and fled away as
fast as his feet could carry him. By the time he reached the edge of the
forest he was very tired, and ready to faint from hunger. His heart's
greatest desire being for food, he wondered if the scissors could obtain
it for him as the Fairy had promised. He had spent his last coin and
knew not where to go for another.
Just then he spied a tree, hanging full of great, yellow apples. By
standing on tiptoe he could barely reach the lowest one with his
scissors. He cut off an apple, and was about to take a bite, when an
old Witch sprang out of a hollow tree across the road.
"So you are the thief who has been stealing my gold apples all this last
fortnight!" she exclaimed. "Well, you shall never steal again, that I
promise you. Ho, Frog-eye Fearsome, seize on him and drag him into your
darkest dungeon!"
At that, a hideous-looking fellow, with eyes like a frog's, green hair,
and horrid clammy webbed fingers, clutched him before he could turn to
defend himself. He was thrust into the dungeon and left there all day.
At sunset, Frog-eye Fearsome opened the door to slide in a crust and a
cup of water, saying in a croaking voice, "You shall be hanged in the
morning, hanged by the neck until you are quite dead." Then he stopped
to run his webbed fingers through his damp green hair, and grin at the
poor captive Prince, as if he enjoyed his suffering.
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