"So the lad asked why she was so afraid.

"Didn't he know? She was promised to a hill-ogre, and the very first time she came under bare sky he was to come and take her; and so when the lad came she thought it was the hill-ogre. And, besides, every Thursday morning came a messenger from the hill-ogre, and that was a dragon, to whom the king had to give nine fat pigs every time he came; and that was why he had given it out that the man who could free him from the dragon should have the princess and half the kingdom.

"The lad said he would soon do that; and as soon as it was daybreak the princess went to the king and said there was a man in there who would free him from the dragon and the tax of pigs. As soon as the king heard that, he was very glad, for the dragon had eaten up so many pigs, there would soon have been no more left in the whole kingdom. It happened that day was just a Thursday morning, and so the lad strode off to the spot where the dragon used to come to eat the pigs, and the s...o...b..ack in the king's grange showed him the way.

"Yes! the dragon came; and he had nine heads, and he was so wild and wroth that fire and flame flared out of his nostrils when he did not see his feast of pigs; and he flew upon the lad as though he would gobble him up alive. But, pop! he turned himself into a lion and fought with the dragon, and tore one head off him after another. The dragon was strong, that he was; and he spat fire and venom. But as the fight went on he hadn't more than one head left, though that was the toughest. At last the lad got that torn off, too; and then it was all over with the dragon.

"So he went to the king, and there was great joy all over the palace; and the lad was to have the princess. But once on a time, as they were walking in the garden, the hill-ogre came flying at them himself, and caught up the princess and bore her off through the air.

"As for the lad, he was for going after her at once; but the king said he mustn't do that, for he had no one else to lean on now he had lost his daughter. But for all that, neither prayers nor preaching were any good: the lad turned himself into a falcon and flew off. But when he could not see them anywhere, he called to mind that wonderful rock in the lake, where he had rested the first time he ever flew. So he settled there, and after he had done that he turned himself into an ant, and crept down through a crack in the rock. So when he had crept about awhile, he came to a door which was locked. But he knew a way how to get in, for he crept through the key-hole, and what do you think he saw there? Why, a strange princess, combing a hill-ogre's hair that had three heads.

"'I have come all right,' said the lad to himself; for he had heard how the king had lost two daughters before, whom the trolls had taken.

"'Maybe, I shall find the second also,' he said to himself, as he crept through the key-hole of a second door. There sat a strange princess combing a hill-ogre's hair who had six heads. So he crept through a third key-hole still, and there sat the youngest princess, combing a hill-ogre's hair with nine heads. Then he crept up her leg and stung her, and so she knew it was the lad who wished to talk to her; and then she begged leave of the hill-ogre to go out.

"When she came out the lad was himself again, and so he told her she must ask the hill-ogre whether she would never get away and go home to her father. Then he turned himself into an ant and sat on her foot, and so the princess went into the house again, and fell to combing the hill-ogre's hair.

"So when she had done this awhile, she fell a-thinking.

"'You're forgetting to comb me,' said the hill-ogre. 'What is it you're thinking of?'

"'Oh, I am doubting whether I shall ever get away from this place, and home to my father's grange,' said the princess.

"'Nay! nay! that you'll never do!' said the hill-ogre; 'not unless you can find the grain of sand which lies under the ninth tongue of the ninth head of the dragon to which your father paid tax; but that no one will ever find, for if that grain of sand came over the rock all the hill-ogres would burst, and the rock itself would become a gilded palace, and the lake green meadows.'

"As soon as the lad heard that he crept out through the keyholes, and through the crack in the rock, till he got outside. Then he turned himself into a falcon, and flew whither the dragon lay. Then he hunted till he found the grain of sand under the ninth tongue of the ninth head, and flew off with it; but when he came to the lake he got so tired, so tired, that he had to sink down and perch on a stone by the strand. And just as he sat there he dozed and nodded for the twinkling of an eye; and, meantime, the grain of sand fell out of his bill down among the sand on the sh.o.r.e. So he searched for it three days before he found it again. But as soon as he had found it he flew straight off to the steep rock with it, and dropped it down the crack. Then all the hill-ogres burst, and the rock was rent, and there stood a gilded castle, which was the grandest castle in all the world; and the lake became the loveliest fields and the greenest meads any one ever saw.

"So they travelled back to the king's grange, and there arose, as you may fancy, joy and gladness. The lad and the youngest princess were to have one another; and they kept up the bridal feast over the whole kingdom for seven full weeks. And if they did not fare well, I only hope you may fare better still."

THE SWEETHEART IN THE WOOD.

"Once on a time there was a man who had a daughter, and she was so pretty her name was spread over many kingdoms, and lovers came to her as thick as autumn leaves. One of these made out that he was richer than all the rest; and grand and handsome he was too; so he was to have her, and after that he came over and over again to see her.

"As time went on, he said he should like her to come to his house and see how he lived; he was sorry he could not fetch her and go with her, but the day she came he would strew peas all along the path right up to his house door; but somehow or other it fell out that he strewed the peas a day too early.

"She set out and walked a long way, through wood and waste, and at last she came to a big grand house, which stood in a green field in the midst of the wood; but her lover was not at home, nor was there a soul in the house either. First, she went into the kitchen, and there she saw nothing but a strange bird which hung in a cage from the roof. Next she went into the parlour, and there everything was so fine it was beyond belief. But as she went into it, the bird called after her,--

"'Pretty maiden, be bold, but not too bold.'

"When she pa.s.sed on into an inner room, the bird called out the same words. There she saw ever so many chests of drawers, and when she pulled open the drawers, they were filled with gold and silver, and everything that was rich and rare. When she went on into a second room the bird called out again,--

"'Pretty maiden! be bold, but not too bold.'

"In that room the walls were all hung round with women's dresses, till the room was crammed full. She went on into a third room, and then the bird screamed out,--

"'Pretty maiden! Pretty maiden, be bold, but not too bold.'

"And what do you think she saw there? Why! ever so many pails full of blood.

"So she pa.s.sed on to a fourth room, and then the bird screamed and screeched after her,--

"'Pretty maiden! Pretty maiden, be bold, but not too bold.'

"'That room was full of heaps of dead bodies, and skeletons of slain women, and the girl got so afraid that she was going to run away out of the house, but she had only got as far as the next room, where the pails of blood stood, when the bird called out to her,--

"'Pretty maiden! Pretty maiden! Jump under the bed, jump under the bed, for now he's coming.'

"She was not slow to give heed to the bird, and to hide under the bed.

She crept as far back close to the wall as she could, for she was so afraid she would have crept into the wall itself, had she been able!

"So in came her lover with another girl; and she begged so prettily and so hard he would only spare her life, and then she would never say a word against him, but it was all no good. He tore off all her clothes and jewels, down to a ring which she had on her finger. That he pulled and tore at, but when he couldn't get it off he hacked off her finger, and it rolled away under the bed to the girl who lay there, and she took it up and kept it. Her sweetheart told a little boy who was with him, to creep under the bed and bring out the finger. Yes! he bent down and crept under, and saw the girl lying there; but she squeezed his hand hard, and then he saw what she meant.

"'It lies so far under, I can't reach it,' he cried. 'Let it bide there till to-morrow, and then I'll fetch it out.'

"Early next morning the robber went out, and the boy was left behind to mind the house, and he then went to meet the girl to whom his master was betrothed, and who had come, as you know, by mistake the day before. But before he went, the robber told him to be sure not to let her go into the two farthermost bed-rooms.

"So when he was well off in the wood, the boy went and said she might come out now.

"'You were lucky, that you were,' he said, 'in coming so soon, else he would have killed you like all the others.'

"She did not stay there long, you may fancy, but hurried back home as quick as ever she could, and when her father asked her why she had come so soon, she told him what sort of a man her sweetheart was, and all that she had heard and seen.

"A short time after her lover came pa.s.sing by that way, and he looked so grand that his raiment shone again, and he came to ask, he said, why she had never paid him that visit as she had promised.

"'Oh!' said her father; 'there came a man in the way with a sledge and scattered the peas, and she couldn't find her way; but now you must just put up with our poor house, and stay the night, for you must know we have guests coming, and it will be just a betrothal feast.'

"So when they had all eaten and drunk, and still sat round the table, the daughter of the house said she had dreamt such a strange dream a few nights before. If they cared to hear it she would tell it them, but they must all promise to sit quite still till she came to the end.

"Yes! They were all ready to hear, and they all promised to sit still, and her sweetheart as well.

"'I dreamt I was walking along a broad path, and it was strewn with peas.'

"'Yes! Yes!' said her sweetheart; 'just as it will be when you go to my house, my love.'

"'Then the path got narrower and narrower, and it went far, far away through wood and waste.'

"'Just like the way to my house, my love,' said her sweetheart.

"'And so I came to a green field, in which stood a big grand house.'

"'Just like my house, my love,' said her sweetheart.

"'So I went into the kitchen, but I saw no living soul, and from the roof hung a strange bird in a cage, and as I pa.s.sed on into the parlour, it called after me, "Pretty maiden, be bold, but not too bold."'

"'Just like my house that too, my love!' said her sweetheart.