Part 9 (1/2)

”Then, one day, while he was chopping wood, a girl came across the yard who was the living picture of the huldre: but when she drew nearer, he saw it wasn't she. Over this he pondered much. Then he saw the girl coming back, and again while she was at a distance she seemed to be the huldre, and he ran to meet her; but as soon as he came near, he saw it wasn't she.

”After this, wherever the lad was--at church at dances, or any other parties--the girl was, too; and still when at a distance she seemed to be the huldre, and when near she was somebody else. Then he asked her whether she was the huldre or not, but she only laughed at him.

'One may as well leap into it as creep into it,' the lad thought; and so he married the girl.

”But the lad had hardly done this before he ceased to like the girl: when he was away from her he longed for her; but when he was with her he yearned for some one he did not see. So the lad behaved very badly to his wife; but she suffered in silence.

”Then one day when he was out looking for his horses, he came again to the cliff; and he sat down and called out--

'Like fairy moonlight, to me thou seemest; Like Midsummer-fires, from afar thou gleamest.'

”He felt that it did him good to sit there; and afterwards he went whenever things were wrong at home. His wife wept when he was gone.

”But one day when he was sitting there, he saw the huldre sitting all alive on the other side blowing her horn. He called over--

'Ah, dear, art thou come! all around thee is s.h.i.+ning!

Ah, blow now again! I am sitting here pining.'

”Then she answered--

'Away from thy mind the dreams I am blowing; Thy rye is all rotting for want of mowing.'

”But then the lad felt frightened and went home again. Ere long, however, he grew so tired of his wife that he was obliged to go to the forest again, and he sat down on the cliff. Then was sung over to him--

'I dreamed thou wast here; ho, hasten to bind me!

No; not over there, but behind you will find me.'

”The lad jumped up and looked around him, and caught a glimpse of a green petticoat just slipping away between the shrubs. He followed, and it came to a hunting all through the forest. So swift-footed as that huldre, no human creature could be: he flung steel over her again and again, but still she ran on just as well as ever. But soon the lad saw, by her pace, that she was beginning to grow tired, though he saw, too, by her shape, that she could be no other than the huldre. 'Now,' he thought, you'll be mine easily;' and he caught hold on her so suddenly and roughly that they both fell, and rolled down the hills a long way before they could stop themselves. Then the huldre laughed till it seemed to the lad the mountains sang again. He took her upon his knee; and so beautiful she was, that never in all his life he had seen any one like her: exactly like her, he thought his wife should have been. 'Ah, who are you who are so beautiful?' he asked, stroking her cheek. She blushed rosy red. 'I'm your wife,' she answered.”

The girls laughed much at that tale, and ridiculed the lad. But G.o.dfather asked Arne if he had listened well to it.

”Well, now I'll tell you something,” said a little girl with a little round face, and a very little nose:--

”Once there was a little lad who wished very much to woo a little girl. They were both grown up; but yet they were very little. And the lad couldn't in any way muster courage to ask her to have him. He kept close to her when they came home from church; but, somehow or other, their chat was always about the weather. He went over to her at the dancing-parties, and nearly danced her to death; but still he couldn't bring himself to say what he wanted. 'You must learn to write,' he said to himself; 'then you'll manage matters.' And the lad set to writing; but he thought it could never be done well enough; and so he wrote a whole year round before he dared do his letter.

Now, the thing was to get it given to her without anybody seeing. He waited till one day when they were standing all by themselves behind the church. 'I've got a letter for you,' said the lad. 'But I can't read writing,' the girl answered.

”And there the lad stood.

”Then he went to service at the girl's father's house; and he used to keep hovering round her all day long. Once he had nearly brought himself to speak; in fact, he had already opened his mouth; but then a big fly flew in it. 'Well, I hope, at any rate, n.o.body else will come to take her away,' the lad thought; but n.o.body came to take her, because she was so very little.

”By-and-by, however, some one _did_ come, and he, too, was little.

The lad could see very well what he wanted; and when he and the girl went up-stairs together, the lad placed himself at the key-hole. Then he who was inside made his offer. 'Bad luck to me, I, codfish, who didn't make haste!' the lad thought. He who was inside kissed the girl just on her lips----. 'No doubt that tasted nice,' the lad thought. But he who was inside took the girl on his lap. 'Oh, dear me! what a world this is!' the lad said, and began crying. Then the girl heard him and went to the door. 'What do you want, you nasty boy?' said she, 'why can't you leave me alone?'--'I? I only wanted to ask you to have me for your bridesman.'--'No; that, my brother's going to be,' the girl answered, banging the door to.

”And there the lad stood.”

The girls laughed very much at this tale, and afterwards pelted each other with husks.

Then G.o.dfather wished Eli Boen to tell something.