Page:Popular tales from the Norse (1912).djvu/513

 Rh "What is it my brother says?" asked the good lassie.

"He says you must throw your casket overboard," said the stepmother.

"Well, when my brother says it, I must do it," said the lassie, and overboard went the casket.

When they had sailed a bit farther, the brother pointed again across the lake.

"There you see the castle we're going to."

"What is it my brother says?" asked the lassie.

"He says now you must throw your little dog overboard," said the stepmother.

Then the lassie wept and was sore grieved, for Little Flo was the dearest thing she had in the world, but at last she threw him overboard.

"When my brother says it, I must do it, but heaven knows how it hurts me to throw you over, Little Flo," she said.

So they sailed on a good bit still.

"There you see the King coming down to meet us," said the brother, and pointed towards the strand.

"What is it my brother says? " asked the lassie.

"Now he says you must make haste and throw yourself overboard," said the stepmother.

Well, the lassie wept and moaned; but when her brother told her to do that, she thought she ought to do it, and so she leapt down into the lake.

But when they came to the palace, and the King saw the loathly bride, with a nose four ells long, and a snout three ells long, and a pine-bush in the midst of her forehead, he was quite scared out of his wits; but the wedding was all ready, both in brewing and baking, and there sat all the wedding guests, waiting for the bride; and so the King