Page:Fairy tales and stories (Andersen, Tegner).djvu/197

Rh "She must play with me!" said the little robber girl. "She must give me her muff and her pretty frock, and sleep with me in my bed !" And then she bit her mother again so that she jumped into the air and twirled round and round, while all the robbers laughed and said : " Look how she is dancing with her brat! "

"I want to get into the coach!" said the little robber girl; and she would and must have her own way, for she was such a spoiled and self- willed child. She and Gerda sat up in the coach, and away they went over stock and stone far into the forest. The little robber girl was just as big as Gerda, but much stronger and more broad-shouldered; her skin was dark and her eyes quite black; they looked almost melancholy. She took little Gerda round the waist and said: "They shall not kill you, as long as I do not get angry with you ! You are a princess, I suppose?"

" No," said little Gerda, and told her about everything she had gone through, and how fond she was of little Kay.

The robber girl looked earnestly at her, gave a little nod with her head, and said : " They shall not kill you, even if I get angry with you, for then I would rather do it myself" And so she dried Gerda's tears and put both her hands into the beautiful muff, which was so soft and warm. The coach now stopped ; they were in the middle of the courtyard of a robbers' castle, the walls of which were cracked from top to bottom, and where ravens and crows flew in and out of the open holes, and the big bulldogs, which looked as if they could swallow a man, jumped high in the air, but they did not bark, for that was prohibited.

In the large old smoky hall a big fire was burning in the middle of the stone floor ; the smoke ascended to the ceiling and had to find a way out for itself ; a large caldron of soup was boiling on the fire, and both hares and rabbits were being roasted on spits before it.

"You shall sleep here with me and all my little animals to-night!" said the robber girl. They had something to eat and drink, after which they went over into a corner where there was some straw and blankets. On some laths and poles above their heads were sitting about a hundred pigeons, which all appeared to be asleep, but they turned their heads a little when the little girls came into the room.

"They are all mine," said the little robber girl, and quickly seized hold of one of the nearest, holding it by the feet and shaking it so that it flapped its wings. "Kiss it!" she cried, and dashed it into Gerda's face. "There are the wood-pigeons!" she went on, and pointed to a hole high up on the wall, with a number of laths nailed across it. " Those two are a couple of rascals from the woods. They would fly away directly if they were not properly shut up ; and here is my old sweetheart Ba!" she said, as she tugged at the antlers of a reindeer, who had a bright copper ring round his neck and was tied up. "We have to look closely after him, too, else he would also run away from us. Every evening I tickle his neck