Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/101

Rh again, and waited till she came, tearing along with her horn of ointment, and greased the Billygoat. Then she said, as she had said the first time—

"Away, away, o'er roof-tree and steeple, o'er land, o'er sea, o'er hill, o'er dale, to my true love who awaits me in the fell this night."

In a trice they were off, and the companion threw himself on behind the Billygoat, and away they went like a blast through the air. In the twinkling of an eye they came to the Troll's hill, and, when she had knocked three times, they passed through the rock to the Troll, who was her lover.

"Where was it you hid the golden scissors I gave you yesterday, my darling?" cried out the princess. "My wooer had it and gave it back to me."

"That was quite impossible," said the Troll; "for he had locked it up in a chest with three locks and hidden the keys in the hollow of his eye-tooth." But when they unlocked the chest and looked for it, the Troll had no scissors in his chest.

So the princess told him how she had given her suitor her golden ball.

"And here it is," she said; "for I took it from him again without his knowing it. But what shall we hit upon now, since he is master of such craft?"

Well, the Troll hardly knew; but, after they had thought a bit, they made up their minds to light a large fire and burn the golden ball; and so they would be cocksure that he could not get at it. But, just as she tossed it into the fire, the companion stood ready and caught it; and neither of them saw him, for he had on the Three-Sister Hat.