Suddenly two robbers sprang out of the thicket, seized the mother and child, and carried them far away into the black forest, where no one ever came from one year's end to another. The poor woman urgently begged the robbers to set her and her child free, but their hearts were made of stone, they would not listen to her prayers and entreaties, and drove her on farther by force. After they had worked their way through bushes and briars for about two miles, they came to a rock where there was a door, at which the robbers knocked and it opened at once. They had to go through a long dark passage, which burnt on the hearth. On the wall hung swords, sabres, and other deadly weapons which gleamed in the light, and in the midst stood a black table at which four other robbers were sitting gambling, and the captain sat at the head of it. As soon as he saw the woman he came and spoke to her, and told her to be at ease and have no fear, they would do nothing to hurt her, but she must look after the housekeeping, and if she kept everything in order, she should not fare ill with them.
Thereupon they gave her something to eat, and showed her a bed where she might sleep with her child.
The woman stayed many years with the robbers, and Hans grew tall and strong. His mother told him stories, and taught him to read an old book of tales about knights which she found in the cave. When Hans was nine years old, he made himself a strong club out of a branch of fir, hid it behind the bed, and then went to his mother and said, dear mother, pray tell me who is my father. I must and will know. His mother was silent and would not tell him, that he might not become home-sick. Moreover she knew that the godless robbers would not let him go away, but it almost broke her heart that Hans should not go to his father.
In the night, when the robbers came home from their robbing expedition, Hans brought out his club, stood before the captain, and said, I now wish to know who my father is, and if you do not tell me at once I will strike you down. Then the captain laughed, and gave Hans such a box on the ear that he rolled under the table.
Hans got up again, held his tongue, and thought, I will wait another year and then try again, perhaps I shall do better then.
When the year was over, he brought out his club again, rubbed the dust off it, looked at it well, and said, it is a stout strong club. At night the robbers came home, drank one jug of wine after another, and their heads began to be heavy. Then Hans brought out his club, placed himself before the captain, and asked him who his father was. But the captain again gave him such a vigorous box on the ear that Hans rolled under the table. However, it was not long before he was up again, and so beat the captain and the robbers with his club, that they could no longer move either their arms or their legs.
His mother stood in a corner full of admiration for his bravery and strength. When Hans had done his work, he went to his mother, and said, now I have shown myself to be in earnest, but now Imust also know who my father is. Dear Hans, answered the mother, come, we will go and seek him until we find him. She took from the captain the key to the entrance-door, and Hans fetched a great meal-sack and packed into it gold and silver, and whatsoever else he could find that was beautiful, until it was full, and then he took it on his back. They left the cave, but how Hans did open his eyes when he came out of the darkness into daylight, and saw the green forest, and the flowers, and the birds, and the morning sun in the sky. He stood there and wondered at everything just as if he were not quite right in the head. His mother looked for the way home, and when they had walked for a couple of hours, they got safely into their lonely valley and to their little house. The father was sitting in the doorway. He wept for joy when he recognized his wife and heard that Hans was his son, for he had long regarded them both as dead. But Hans, although he was not twelve years old, was a head taller than his father. They went into the little room together, but Hans had scarcely put his sack on the bench by the stove, than the whole house began to crack - the bench broke down and then the floor, and the heavy sack fell through into the cellar. God save us, cried the father, what's that. Now you have broken our little house to pieces. Don't let that turn your hair grey, dear father, answered Hans. There, in that sack, is more than is wanting for a new house. The father and Hans at once began to build a new house, to buy cattle and land, and to keep a farm. Hans ploughed the fields, and when he followed the plough and pushed it into the ground, the bullocks had scarcely any need to draw.
The next spring, Hans said, keep all the money and have made for me a walking-stick that weighs a hundred-weight, that I may go a-traveling. When the stick was ready, he left his father's house, went forth, and came to a deep, dark forest. There he heard something crunching and cracking, looked round, and saw a fir-tree which was wound round like a rope from the bottom to the top, and when he looked upwards he saw a great fellow who had laid hold of the tree and was twisting it like a willow-wand.
