Page:Danish fairy and folk tales.djvu/332

 "Hoo, hoo!" shouted the troll. "She is the sweetest nightingale. She sings for me from nightfall to daybreak. Hoo, hoo!"

"If you do not bring my daughter here," cried the king, "we will never leave you until we take your life, you monster!"

"Hoo, hoo-o-o-o!" began the troll, again, but at the same moment James again sounded his horn, blowing a merry tune. The dwarf-king fell upon his face, and began to hop about on the point of his nose with wonderful rapidity. He looked so singular that the king could not help smiling, although he had almost forgotten how during the six years in which he had not seen his daughter.

"Hoo, stop! I am over five hundred years old, and you will kill me if this goes on—hoo-o-o-o, hoo!" shouted the troll.

"Bring my daughter!" roared the king. "Bring her as young and pretty and innocent as she was when I saw her last."

"Yes, yes!" panted the troll. "Stop, stop, stop!"

James stopped, and the dwarf-king rushed into another cave, from which he appeared a moment later with the princess, who ran to her father, and was clasped in his strong arms.

"Where is the prince?" asked James. "Forth with him, if you do not wish to hop about another time."

"He is here no more," replied the troll.

"Here he is," suddenly exclaimed the princess,