Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/100

78 driven the scissors into her face; but for all that she made herself soft and gentle, and said—

"Since you have kept the scissors so well, it won't be any trouble to you to keep my golden ball of yarn, and take care you give it me to-morrow at noon; but if you have lost it, you shall lose your life on the scaffold. It is the law."

The lad thought that an easy thing, so he took and put the golden ball into his pocket. But she fell a-playing and flirting with him again, so that he forgot both himself and the golden ball, and while they were at the height of their games and pranks, she stole it from him, and sent him off to bed.

Then when he came up to his bedroom, and told what they had said and done, his companion asked—

"Of course you have the golden ball she gave you?"

"Yes! yes!" said the lad, and felt in his pocket where he had put it; but no, there was no ball to be found, and he fell again into such an ill mood, and knew not which way to turn.

"Well! well! bear up a bit," said the companion. "I'll see if I can't lay hands on it;" and with that he took the sword and hat and strode off to a smith, and got twelve pounds of iron welded on to the back of the sword-blade. Then he went down to the stable, and gave the Billygoat a stroke between his horns, so that the brute went head over heels, and he asked—

"When rides the princess to see her lover to-night?"

"At twelve o'clock," baaed the Billygoat.

So the companion put on the Three-Sister Hat