Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/179



NCE on a time there was a little boy who was out walking on the road, and when he had walked a bit he found a box.



"I am sure there must be something pretty in this box," he said to himself; but however much he turned it, and however much he twisted it, he was not able to get it open.

But when he had walked a bit farther, he found a little tiny key. Then he got tired and sat down, and all at once he thought what fun it would be if the key fitted the box, for it had a little keyhole in it. So he took the little key out of his pocket, and then he blew first into the pipe of the key, and afterwards into the keyhole, and then he put the key into the keyhole and turned it. "Snap!" it went within the lock; and when he tried the hasp, the box was open.

But can you guess what there was in the box? Why, a cow's tail; and if the cow's tail had been longer, this story would have been longer too.