Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/220

198 came on they went back, and when they got home, the door was locked fast.

"Now we have him," said the lad; "it's hard to keep off the field to which one is wont."

So they went by the back way from the garden, and so through a trap-door in the cellar into the kitchen. Then they struck a light and went into the parlour, and saw what they saw. Well, our clerk had eaten so well that he lay snoring with his mouth open and his nose in the air; as for the goody, she was not awake either.

"Now you see I was right; seeing is believing, master," said the lad.

"May I never speak the truth again," said the man, "if I would have believed ten men telling it."

"Hush, be still," said the lad, and took him out again.

"Man's law is not land's law," said the lad; "but even a bear can be tamed if you know how to deal with him. Have you any lead, master?"

Yes! he had, he was sure, more than seventy bullets in his pouch. Then it was all right. They took a saucepan, and melted the lead on the spot, and ran it down our clerk's throat.

"Every man has his own taste," said the lad, "and