From that day the peasant and all his family were firm friends of Ethelried's, and would have gone through fire and water to serve him.
After that he had many adventures, and he was very busy, for he never again forgot what the Fairy had said, that only unselfish service each day could keep the scissors sharp and shining.

When the shepherd lost a little lamb one day on the mountain, it was Ethelried who found it caught by the fleece in a tangle of cruel thorns.

When he had cut it loose and carried it home, the shepherd also became his firm friend, and would have gone through fire and water to serve him.
The grandame whom he supplied with fagots, the merchant whom he rescued from robbers, the King's councillor to whom he gave aid, all became his friends.

Up and down the land, to beggar or lord, homeless wanderer or high-born dame, he gladly gave unselfish service all unsought, and such as he helped straightway became his friends.
Day by day the scissors grew sharper and sharper and ever more quick to spring forward at his bidding.
One day a herald dashed down the highway, shouting through his silver trumpet that a beautiful Princess had been carried away by the Ogre.

She was the only child of the King of this country, and the knights and nobles of all other realms and all the royal potentates were prayed to come to her rescue.