Opera Stories from Wagner Part 12

The bear growled at Mimi.

"Oh! keep him off!" gasped Mimi.

"I shall," said Siegfried, "if you will promise to answer all I ask."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "EAT HIM, BRUIN," LAUGHED SIEGFRIED]

"I will! I will! I will tell you anything you want to know," stammered Mimi.

Siegfried untied the rope.

"Good-bye, Bruin," he said, as he gave him a friendly slap on the back, and the big bear trotted off to the woods.

SIEGFRIED AND MIMI

Mimi and Siegfried sat down upon the rocks in the cave, and Mimi told how he had found the baby in the woods and how he had brought him to the cave.

Mimi put in many words of how much Siegfried owed for all this care and trouble.

"Thou givest me always trouble and pain, I wear to shreds poor foolish me!

Now, for my care, this is my gain,-- Only abuse and hate from thee."

Siegfried looked straight into Mimi's eyes.

He tried to see if Mimi were telling the truth.

"How did you know my name was Siegfried?" he asked.

Then Mimi told of the strange voice which said:--

"Siegfried is his name."

But not once did the dwarf mention the sword.

"You cowardly little wretch!" cried Siegfried. "You have told me so much that is not true that I can never believe you.

"How do I know that this is not another of your miserable falsehoods?

"Prove to me that this is true, or I shall make you sorry that you ever saw me. Prove it to me, I tell you!" cried Siegfried, as he grasped the shrinking dwarf by the shoulders.

"I will! I will!" gasped the frightened Mimi; and he brought out the broken sword.

SIEGFRIED MENDS HIS FATHER'S SWORD

Siegfried looked at the sword.

Then handing it back to Mimi, he said:--

"Mend it for me, Mimi! Mend it! Now is your chance to prove your skill!"

"I cannot! Oh, I cannot!" groaned Mimi; and he gasped out the rest of what the voice had told him:--

"Only he who knows no fear can mend the sword."

Siegfried took the broken pieces to the forge and began filing them to dust.

"Stop, Siegfried, stop!" cried Mimi. "You will ruin that blade!"

But Siegfried kept on filing.

He sang as he worked, until the pieces were filed to dust.

Then he melted the dust and poured the hot liquid into a mould the shape of a blade.

When it had hardened, he took it out and sharpened it.

Then he welded the blade to its hilt.

"Ha! ha!" chuckled Mimi. "At last the sword is mended.

"Now I will show Siegfried the dragon. He will not know a ring is in the dragon's cave.

"When the dragon is dead, the ring shall be Mimi's.

"Mimi, you are no longer the despised little Nibelung. You are the king of the earth."

Joyously Siegfried waved the bright blade above his head.

He brought it down with all his strength upon the forge, and with a mighty crash the huge rock fell in pieces.

Mimi sank in terror to the ground.

SIEGFRIED GOES TO FIGHT THE DRAGON

"Get up, you coward!" cried Siegfried.

"Now tell me what that thing is that I do not know. Fear? What is fear?

Why did you not teach it to me?"

The wicked dwarf slipped to Siegfried's side.

"I will teach you. Come with me. I will show you a horrible serpent, lying at the door of Hate Cavern.

"There you will learn what fear is, if you can learn it any place in this world.

"Have you never seen anything that made you s.h.i.+ver from head to foot and made your heart beat fast?"