Part 34 (2/2)

”The one that was glad then, you may fancy, was the kitchen-maid, and from that day she always let Boots sc.r.a.pe the porridge-pot; but it was not long before he got so many enemies by that, that they told lies of him to the king, and said he had told them he was man enough to do this and that.

”So one day the king came and asked Boots if it were true that he was man enough to keep the fish in the mill-dam, so that the troll could not harm them, 'for that's what they tell me you have said,' spoke the king.

”'I have not said so,' said Boots, 'but if I had said it I would have been as good as my word.'

”Well, however it was, whether he had said it or not, he must try, if he wished to keep a whole skin on his back; that was what the king said.

”'Well, if he must he must,' said Boots, for he said he had no need to go about with red stripes under his jacket.

”In the evening Boots peeped through his key ring, and then he saw that the troll was afraid of thyme. So he fell to plucking all the thyme he could find, and some of it he strewed in the water, and some on land, and the rest he spread over the brink of the dam.

”So the troll had to leave the fish in peace, but now the sheep had to pay for it, for the troll was chasing them over all the cliffs and crags the whole night.

”Then one of the other servants came and said again that Boots knew a cure for the stock as well, if he only chose, for that he had said he was man enough to do it, was the very truth.

”Well! the king went out to him and spoke to him as he had spoken the first time, and threatened that he would cut three broad stripes out of his back if he did not do what he had said.

”So there was no help for it. Boots thought, I dare say it would be very fine to go about in the king's livery and a red jacket, but he thought he would rather be without it, if he himself had to find the cloth for it out of the skin of his back. That was what he thought and said.

”So he betook himself to his thyme again, but there was no end to his work, for as soon as he bound thyme on the sheep they ate it off one another's backs, and as he went on binding they went on eating, and they ate faster than he could bind. But at last he made an ointment of thyme and tar, and rubbed it well into them, and then they left off eating it.

Then the kine and the horses got the same ointment, and so they had peace from the troll.

”But one day when the king was out hunting he trod upon wild gra.s.s and got bewildered, and lost his way in the wood; so he rode round and round for many days, and had nothing either to eat or drink, and his clothing fared so ill in the thorns and thickets that at last he had scarce a rag to his back. So the troll came to him and said if he might have the first thing the king set eyes on when he got on his own land, he would let him go home to his grange. Yes! he should have that, for the king thought it would be sure to be his little dog, which always came frisking and fawning to meet him. But just as he got near his grange, that they could see him, out came his eldest daughter at the head of all the court, to meet the king, and to welcome him back safe and sound.

”So when he saw that she was the first to meet him, he was so cut to the heart he fell to the ground on the spot, and since that time had been almost half-witted.

”One evening the troll was to come and fetch the princess, and she was dressed out in her best, and sat in a field out by the tarn, and wept and bewailed. There was a man called Glibtongue, who was to go with her, but he was so afraid he clomb up into a tall spruce fir, and there he stuck. Just then up came Boots, and sat down on the ground by the side of the princess. And she was so glad, as you may fancy, when she saw there were still Christian folk who dared to stay by her after all.

”'Lay your head on my lap,' she said, 'and I'll comb your hair;' so Osborn Boots did as she bade him, and while she combed his hair he fell asleep, and she took a gold ring off her finger and knitted it into his hair. Just then up came the troll puffing and blowing. He was so heavy footed that all the wood groaned and cracked a whole mile round.

”And when the troll saw Glibtongue sitting up in the tree-top, like a little black c.o.c.k, he spat at him.

”'Pish,' he said, that was all, and down toppled Glibtongue and the spruce fir to the ground, and there he lay sprawling like a fish out of water.

”'Hu! hu!' said the troll, 'are you sitting here combing Christian folk's hair? Now I'll gobble you up.'

”'Stuff,' said Boots, as soon as he woke up, and then he fell to peering at the troll through the ring on his key.

”'Hu! hu!' said the troll, 'what are you staring at? Hu! hu!'

”And as he said that he hurled his iron club at him, so that it stood fifteen ells deep in the rock; but Boots was so quick and ready on his feet that he got on one side of the club, just as the troll hurled it.

”'Stuff! for such old wives' tricks,' said Boots, 'out with your toothpick, and you shall see something like a throw.'

”Yes! the troll plucked out the club at one pull, and it was as big as three weaver's beams. Meanwhile Boots stared up at the sky, both south and north.

”'Hu! hu!' said the troll, 'what are you gazing at now?'

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