Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/223

Rh "There's no saying what one can do till one tries. If we drive in the frost we shall find it slippery, to our cost. Have you ropes and cord, master? If so, I'll see if I can't cure this."

Well! he got our clerk fast in a slipknot, threw him on his back, caught up his hat as well, and away he went. But he hadn't gone far along the path in the meadow when he met some horses; so he caught one of these, and tied and bound our clerk fast on his back. He put his hat, too, on his head, and his hand down on his thigh, and there he sat upright, and jogged up and down just as a man on horseback.

"One may kill Trolls at any time of night," said the lad when he got home; "who can say when a man is 'fey'? But he will never rise up who is safe buried under ground, and the cock that is slain crows never again."

Now, whether all this were true or no, there was a way from the meadow across the fields to a barn, and along it they had carted hay, and dropped it as they went along; so the horse went that way, picking up the hay as he went and out in that barn were two men