Page:Danish fairy and folk tales.djvu/212

 thought him dead long ago. He told them what had happened and how well he had fared, and they wondered much at his good fortune. It was their greatest desire to see the fair princess who had rescued him, and they were never tired of asking him to call her, that they might themselves thank and admire her. He answered again and again that this could not be—that the princess had forbidden it. As they could not restrain their desire, however, and as he was himself anxious to see her, he at length turned the ring on his finger, wishing her to come. At once the princess appeared, snatched the ring away from him, boxed his ears effectively, and vanished as rapidly as she had come. Now he stood there, deprived of his happiness and all means of returning to her.

As he could not remain at home he bid his parents good-bye, and set out to seek his lost happiness. He walked a long distance, and at length lost his way entirely. One day, when he stopped to rest in the depths of a large forest, he noticed a couple of kobolds quarrelling about something. "What are you quarrelling about?" asked he. Well, they had found a pair of slippers which would enable their owner to cover ten miles in one step. Each of them wanted these, and each said that he had found them. "No use to quarrel about that," said the young man. "Each of you may take one and cover ten miles in two steps." But such a plan did not suit them. "Well," said the young man again,