He went at once to his father 's room , and found him sitting in tears on the floor . ` Dear father , ' said Halfman , ` are you not glad to see me ? You weep for my brother , but I am your son too , and he stole my bride from me and tried to drown me in the brook . If he is dead , I at least am alive . ' ` No , no , he was better than you ! ' moaned the father . ` Why , dear father ? ' ` He told me you had behaved very ill , ' said he . ` Well , call my brothers , ' answered Halfman , ` as I have a story to tell them . ' So the father called them all into his presence . Then Halfman began : ` After we were twelve days ' journey from home , we met an ogress , who gave us greeting and said , `` Why have you been so long coming ? The daughters of your uncle have waited for you in vain , '' and she bade us follow her to the house , saying , `` Now there need be no more delay ; you can marry your cousins as soon as you please , and take them with you to your own home . '' But I warned my brothers that the man was not our uncle , but an ogre . ` When we lay down to sleep , she spread a red cloth over us , and covered her daughters with a white one ; but I changed the cloths , and when the ogress came back in the middle of the night , and looked at the cloths , she mistook her own daughters for my brothers , and killed them one by one , all but the youngest . Then I woke my brothers , and we all stole softly from the house , and we rode like the wind to our real uncle . ` And when he saw us , he bade us welcome , and married us to his twelve daughters , the eldest to the eldest , and so on to me , whose bride was the youngest of all and also the prettiest . And my brothers were filled with envy , and left me to drown in a brook , but I was saved by a fish who showed me how to get out . Now , you are a judge ! Who did well , and who did evil -- I or my brothers ? ' ` Is this story true ? '
said the father , turning XXXXX his sons .
If as at by for of than that to with