Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/209

Rh "Don't be in such a way, father," said the lad, "you ought never to judge a man by his clothes; and now you shall be my spokesman, and go up to the palace and woo the king's daughter for me." That was what the lad said.

"Oh, fie, fie," said the father, "this is only gibing and jeering."

But the lad said it was the right down earnest, and so he took a birch cudgel and drove his father up to the gate of the palace, and there he came hobbling right up to the king with his eyes full of tears.



"Now, now!" said the king, what's the matter, my man? If you have suffered wrong, I will see you righted."

No, it wasn't that, he said, but he had a son who had brought him great sorrow, for he could never make a man of him, and now he must say he had gone clean out of the little wit he had before; and then he went on—

"For now he has hunted me up to the palace gate with a big birch cudgel, and forced me to ask for the king's daughter to wife."

"Hold your tongue, my man," said the king; "and as for this son of yours, go and ask him to come here indoors to me, and then we will see what to make of him."

So the lad ran in before the king till his rags fluttered behind him.