Tree Comber felt rather ashamed of himself , and set about boiling some more vegetables , but they were still very hard when the hunters returned , and though they complained of his bad cooking , he did not tell them about the dwarf . Next day Stone Crusher was left behind , and after him Iron Kneader , and each time the dwarf appeared , and they fared no better than Tree Comber had done . The fourth day Paul said to them : ` My friends , there must be some reason why your cooking has always been so bad , now you shall go and hunt and I will stay behind . ' So they went off , amusing themselves by thinking what was in store for Paul . He set to work at once , and had just got all his vegetables simmering in the pot when the dwarf appeared as before , and asked to have some of the stew . ` Be off , ' cried Paul , snatching up the saucepan as he spoke . The dwarf tried to get hold of his collar , but Paul seized him by the beard , and tied him to a big tree so that he could not stir , and went on quietly with his cooking . The hunters came back early , longing to see how Paul had got on , and , to their surprise , dinner was quite ready for them . ` You are great useless creatures , ' said he , ` who could n't even outwit that little dwarf . When we have finished supper I will show you what I have done with him ! ' But when they reached the place where Paul had left the dwarf , neither he nor the tree was to be seen , for the little fellow had pulled it up by the roots and run away , dragging it after him . The four friends followed the track of the tree and found that it ended in a deep hole . ` He must have gone down here , ' said Paul , ` and I will go after him . See ! there is a basket that will do for me to sit in , and a cord to lower me with . But when I pull the cord again , lose no time in drawing the basket up . ' And he stepped into the basket , which was lowered by his friends . At last it touched the ground and he jumped out and looked about him . He was in a beautiful valley , full of meadows and streams , with a splendid castle standing by . As the door was open he walked in , but a lovely maiden met him and implored him to go back , for the owner of the castle was a dragon with six heads , who had stolen her from her home and brought her down to this underground spot .
But Paul refused to listen to all her entreaties , and declared that he was not afraid of the XXXXX , and did not care how many heads he had ; and he sat down calmly to wait for him .
day dragon fellow pot roots saucepan spot stew time vegetables