Page:Danish fairy and folk tales.djvu/288

 "The aldermen are holding a meeting, and you may go and see him there."

"How do we find him?" inquired one of the men.

"When you reach the gate which opens from the road into the forest, you will see a large elm to the right," replied she. "All that you need do is to knock a dozen times on the tree with your large clubs, then Eric will come out and talk with you. Be sure of that!"

The seven Plainfielders followed her directions to the letter. When they reached the large elm they stopped and listened. Quite right; there was a buzzing within the tree like at an alderman's meeting, where the wise fathers speak all at once. "Now he shall have what he has deserved," said the seven men to one another, fetching the tree some hard blows with their clubs. But the wasps within the old and rotten trunk took this action much amiss. They at once fell upon the seven intruders with such good will and such effect that all took to their heels, having tried in vain to make front against the enemy.

They returned to the carriage as rapidly as their legs would carry them, and drove out of Hilltown with swelled noses and pains in all their limbs. To render their rout complete, Eric had seated himself in a tall tree near a bridge built across a small creek, which the men must pass. As soon as the defeated Plainfielders arrived there, he began to sound an old trumpet with all his might. The