Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/253

Rh So they walked about and quarrelled and strove till they came to the bridge across the river, just above a deep hole.

Tis an old saying," said the man, "that good tools make good work, but I fancy it will be a fine swathe that is shorn with a pair of shears. Mayn't we just as well reap the field after all?" he asked.

"No! no! shear! shear!" bawled out the goody, who jumped about and clipped like a pair of scissors under her husband's nose. In her shrewishness she took such little heed that she tripped over a beam on the bridge, and down she went plump into the stream.

Tis hard to wean any one from bad ways," said the man, "but it were strange if I were not sometimes in the right too."

Then he swam out into the hole and caught his wife by the hair of her head, and so got her head above water.

"Shall we reap the field now?" were the first words he said.

"Shear! shear! shear!" screeched the goody.

"I'll teach you to shear," said the man, as he ducked her under the water; but it was no good, they must shear it, she said, as soon as ever she came up again.

"I can't think anything else than that the goody is