after he had spent some hours in the darkness, not without fear and trembling, he saw at a very short distance the glimmer of a light, and as he thought that a human habitation might be there, where he would be better off than on the branches of a tree, he got carefully down and went towards the light. it guided him to a small hut that was woven together of reeds and rushes. he knocked boldly, the door opened, and by the light which came forth he saw a little hoary old man who wore a coat made of bits of colored stuff sewn together. "who are you, and what do you want?" asked the man in a grumbling voice. "i am a poor tailor," he answered, "whom night has surprised here in the wilderness, and i earnestly beg you to take me into your hut until morning." "go your way," replied the old man in a surly voice, "i will have nothing to do with runagates; seek for yourself a shelter elsewhere." after these words he was about to slip into his hut again, but the tailor held him so tightly by the corner of his coat, and pleaded so piteously, that the old man, who was not so ill-natured as he wished to appear, was at last softened, and took him into the hut with him where he gave him something to eat, and then pointed out to him a very good bed in a corner.