Part 10 (2/2)

”'That is no such great art,' thought the lad.

”But the princess was so merry and mad, and flirted so much with him, that he forgot all about the scissors and himself, and so while they played and sported, she stole the scissors away from him without his knowing it. When he went up to his room at night, and told how he had fared, and what she had said to him, and about the scissors she gave him to keep, the companion said,--

”'Of course you have the scissors safe and sure.'

”Then he searched in all his pockets; but there were no scissors, and the lad was in a sad way when he found them wanting.

”'Well! well!' said the companion; 'I'll see if I can't get you them again.'

”With that he went down into the stable, and there stood a big, fat Billygoat, which belonged to the princess, and it was of that breed that it could fly many times faster through the air than it could run on land. So he took the Three-Sister Sword, and gave it a stroke between the horns, and said,--

”'When rides the princess to see her lover to-night?'

”The Billygoat baaed, and said it dared not say, but when it had another stroke, it said the princess was coming at eleven o'clock. Then the companion put on the Three-Sister Hat, and all at once he became invisible, and so he waited for her. When she came, she took and rubbed the Billygoat with an ointment which she had in a great horn, and said,--

”'Away, away, o'er roof tree and steeple, o'er land, o'er sea, o'er hill, o'er dale, to my true love who awaits me in fell this night.'

”At the very moment that the goat set off, the companion threw himself on behind, and away they went like a blast through the air. They were not long on the way, and in a trice they came to a crossfell. There she knocked, and so the goat pa.s.sed through the fell to the Troll, who was her lover.

”'Now, my dear,' she said, 'a new lover is come, whose heart is set on having me. He is young and handsome but I will have no other than you,'

and so she coaxed and petted the Troll.

”'So I set him a trial, and here are the scissors he was to watch and keep; now do you keep them,' she said.

”So the two laughed heartily, just as though they had the lad already on wheel and stake.

”'Yes! yes!' said the Troll; 'I'll keep them safe enough.

And I shall sleep on the bride's white arm, While ravens round his skeleton swarm.'

”And so he laid the scissors in an iron chest with three locks; but just as he dropped them into the chest, the companion snapped them up.

Neither of them could see him, for he had on the Three-Sister Hat; and so the Troll locked up the chest for naught, and he hid the keys he had in the hollow eye-tooth in which he had the toothache. There it would be hard work for any one to find them, the Troll thought.

”So when midnight was pa.s.sed she set off home again. The companion got up behind the goat, and they lost no time on the way back.

”Next day, about noon, the lad was asked down to the king's board; but then the princess gave herself such airs, and was so high and mighty, she would scarce look towards the side where the lad sat. After they had dined, she dressed her face in holiday garb, and said, as if b.u.t.ter wouldn't melt in her mouth,--

”'May be you have those scissors which I begged you to keep, yesterday?'

”'Oh, yes, I have;' said the lad, 'and here they are,' and with that he pulled them out, and drove them into the board, till it jumped again.

The princess could not have been more vexed had he driven the scissors into her face; but for all that she made herself soft and gentle, and said,--

”'Since you have kept the scissors so well, it won't be any trouble to you to keep my golden ball of yarn, and take care you give it me to-morrow at noon; but if you have lost it, you shall lose your life on the scaffold. It is the law.'

”The lad thought that an easy thing, so he took and put the golden ball into his pocket. But she fell a-playing and flirting with him again, so that he forgot both himself and the golden ball, and while they were at the height of their games and pranks, she stole it from him, and sent him off to bed.

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