Page:Danish fairy and folk tales.djvu/210

 and drew another, placing the table and the chair within it; and seating himself on the chair, he read diligently in a book which he had placed on the table before him. Soon Lucifer came walking along. The man had not known him before, but this time he was in no doubt as to who he was.

Stopping near the father, the Enemy said: "Now the time has come for you to fulfil your part of the agreement." "Go and take the boy, if you can," replied the man; "I have brought him along. He is not far away." Lucifer went to the boy, stopped near the circle, and said: "Come here! You belong to me." "Take me, if you can," was the answer. The Evil One reached after him, but to no effect; he could not grasp him, and it was impossible for him to cross the circle. At length he returned to the father, and tried to coax and scare him away from his retreat, but all in vain; and when he had run back and forth between the two for a considerable length of time, he finally lost his patience and walked away. In twenty-four hours the father was at liberty to leave his circle and return home; but the boy remained where he was, awaiting the time when a beautiful maiden should come and save him.

At length, as the news of his cruel fate reached far and wide, a fair young princess who lived in a palace south of the sun, west of the moon, and in the middle of the wind, determined to rescue him. She came driving in a golden carriage, stopped in