Page:Popular tales from the Norse (1912).djvu/529

 Rh to the Sheriff, and it was as much as he could do to get out of the scrape.

When Big Peter got home again, he was so wroth and mad against Little Peter, he threatened to strike him dead there and then; he needn't hope for mercy, die he must.

"Well, well," said Little Peter, "that's the way we must all trudge, and betwixt to-day and to-morrow there's only a night to come. But if I must set off now, I've only one thing to ask; stuff me into that sack that hangs yonder, and take and toss me into the river."

Well, Big Peter had nothing to say against that; he stuffed him into the sack, and set off. But he hadn't gone far on his way before it came into his mind that he had forgotten something which he must go back to fetch; meanwhile, he set the sack down by the road-side. Just then came a man driving a fine fat flock of sheep,

roared out Little Peter, who lay inside the sack, and that he kept bawling and bellowing out.

"Mayn't I get leave to go with you?" asked the man who drove the sheep.

"Of course you may," said Little Peter. "If you'll only untie the sack, and creep into it in my stead, you'll soon get there. As for me, I don't mind biding here till next time, that I don't. But you must keep on calling out the words I bawled out, else you'll not go to the right place."

Then the man untied the sack, and got into it in Little Peter's place: Peter tied the sack up again, and the man began to bawl out,—