Page:Christmas Fireside Stories.djvu/278

266 pommel of the saddle and made preparations for the wedding. But before they went to church, the bride asked one of the bridesmaids to stand close behind, that no one should see the cow's tail fall off when the parson put his hand on her head.

"So the wedding was celebrated, and when the loving cup was passing round, the bridegroom went across to the chamber, where a table had been laid for the old huldrefolks. He did not notice anything there that time, but when the guests had departed and he went in to see to the old folks again they were gone, but he found such a lot of gold and silver which they must have left behind, that he had never seen so much treasure before.

"So everything went comfortably for a long time; and whenever they had any friends with them, the wife got something ready for the old couple in the little chamber, who always left so much money behind them that the young people did not know what to do with it. But the huldre wife was ugly and remained ugly, and the young husband began to get tired of her, and I believe he was unkind to her now and then, and even attempted to strike her.

"One day late in the autumn he was going to town, but the early frost had set in and the roads were slippery, so he had to get his horse shod first. He went to the smithy,—for he was a clever smith himself,—but whichever way he twisted and turned the iron, the shoes were either too large or too small, and he could not get them to fit. He had only that horse at home on the farm, so he had no choice but to work away at the shoeing. But dinner time came, and the afternoon wore on, and still the horse was unshod.

Will you never get those shoes ready?' asked his wife. 'You are not much of a husband of late, and I think you are still less a smith. I see no help for it but to go myself to the smithy and shoe your horse. If I make the shoe too big you can make it smaller, and if I make it too small you can make it bigger.' She went into the smithy, and the first thing she did was to take the shoe in her hands and pull the iron out straight.

Look here,' she said, 'this is the way you are to do it!' So she bent the shoe together as if it were of lead. 'Now hold his