Part 24 (1/2)

”'You could not have met anything better,' said the lad; 'I have been as fond of cats all my life as of dogs.'

”'Well,' thought the man, 'I did not get so badly out of that after all; but there's another day to come, when he is to go to town himself.'

”The third morning the lad set off, and just as he got into the town he met the same old hag with her basket on her arm.

”'Good morning, granny!' said the lad.

”'Good morning to you, my son,' said the old hag.

”'What have you got in your basket?'

”'If you want to know you had better buy it,' said the old hag.

”'Will you sell it then?' asked the lad.

”Yes, she would; and fourpence was her price.

”'That was cheap enough,' said the lad, 'and he would have it, for he was to buy the first thing he met.'

”'Now you may take it, basket and all,' said the old hag; 'but mind you don't look inside it before you get home. Do you hear what I say?'

”'Nay, nay, never fear, he wouldn't look inside it; was it likely?' But for all that he walked and wondered what there could be inside the basket, and whether he would or no he could not help just lifting the lid and peeping in. In the twinkling of an eye out popped a little lizard, and ran away so fast along the street that the air whistled after it. There was nothing else in the basket.

”'Nay! nay!' cried the lad, 'stop a bit, and don't run off so. You know I have bought you.'

”'Stick me in the tail--stick me in the tail!' bawled the lizard.

”Well, the lad was not slow in running after it and sticking his knife into its tail just as it was crawling into a hole in the wall, and that very minute it was turned into a young man as fine and handsome as the grandest prince, and a prince he was indeed.

”'Now you have saved me,' said the prince, 'for that old hag with whom you and your master have dealt is a witch, and me she has changed into a lizard, and my brother and sister into a puppy and kitten.'

”'A pretty story!' said the lad.

”'Yes,' said the prince; 'and now she was on her way to cast us into the fjord and kill us; but if any one came and wanted to buy us she must sell us for fourpence each; that was settled, and that was all my father could do. Now you must come home to him and get the meed for what you have done.'

”'I dare say,' said the lad, 'it's a long way off?'

”'Oh,' said the prince, 'not so far after all. There it is yonder,' he said, as he pointed to a great hill in the distance.

”So they set off as fast as they could, but as was to be weened it was farther off than it looked, and so they did not reach the hill till far on in the night.

”Then the prince began to knock and knock.

”'WHO IS THAT,' said some one inside the hill, 'that knocks at my door, and spoils my rest?' and that some one was so loud of speech that the earth quaked.

”'Oh! open the door, father, there's a dear,' said the prince. 'It is your son who has come home again.'

”Yes! he opened the door fast and well.

”'I almost thought you lay at the bottom of the sea,' said the grey-beard. 'But you are not alone, I see,' he said.