Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/124

102 "So am I hot-tempered," said the King, "and that horn I must have. I'll give you a hundred dollars for it, and besides I'll forgive you for cheating me out of my horse, and for fooling me about the pot and the block, and all else."



Peik was very loth to part with it, but for his sake he would let him have it; and so the King went off home with it, and he had hardly got back before he must try it. So he fell a-wrangling and quarrelling with the Queen and his eldest daughter, and they paid him back in the same coin; but before they knew a word about it, he whipped out his knife and cut their throats, so that they fell down stone dead, and every one else ran out of the room, they were so afraid.

The King walked and paced about the floor for a while, and kept chattering that there was no harm done so long as there was breath in him, and a pack of such