Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/165

Rh "No, there was not." That was what they all said who were on deck.

"Is there no one else on board the ship than those I see?" asked the king.

"Yes; there's a little beggar-boy."

"Well," said the king, "let him come on deck."

So when he came, and heard what the king wanted, he said he thought he might cure her; and then the captain got so wroth and mad with rage that he ran round and round like a squirrel in a cage, for he thought the boy was only putting himself forward to do something in which he was sure to fail, and he told the king not to listen to such childish chatter.

But the king only said that wit came as children grew, and that there was the making of a man in every bairn. The boy had said he could do it, and he might as well try. After all, there were many who had tried and failed before him. So he took him home to his daughter, and the lad sang a hymn once. Then the princess could lift her arm. Once again he sang it, and she could sit up in bed. And when he had sung it thrice the king's daughter was as well as you and I are.

The king was so glad, he wanted to give him half his kingdom and the princess to wife.

"Yes," said the lad, "land and power are fine things to have half of," and was very grateful; "but as for the princess, he was betrothed to another," he said, "and he could not take her to wife."

So he stayed there awhile, and got half the kingdom; and when he had not been very long there, war broke out, and the lad went out to battle with the rest, and