Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/285

Rh the kitchen-maid! But while he was hard at it, in came the king, and made them cut three red stripes out of his back; and then they rubbed salt into the wound, and sent him home again the same way he came.

Now as soon as Peter was well home, Paul must set off in his turn. Well, well! he too got brandy in his flask, and food in his wallet, and he threw his fare on his back and toddled down the hill. When he had got on his way, he too met the old wife, who begged for food; but he strode past her and made no answer; and at the king's grange he did not fare a pin better than Peter. The king called "chick-a-biddy!" and the kitchen-maid called him a clumsy boy; and when he was going to bang and beat her for that, in came the king with a butcher's knife, and cut three red stripes out of him, and rubbed hot embers in, and sent him home again with a sore back.

Then Boots crept out the cinders and fell to shaking himself. The first day he shook all the ashes off him, the second he washed and combed himself, and the third he dressed himself in his Sunday best.

"Nay, nay! just look at him," said Peter. "Now we have got a new sun shining here. I'll be bound you are off to the king's grange to win his daughter and half the kingdom. Far better bide in the dusthole and lie in the ashes, that you had."

But Boots was deaf in that ear, and he went in to his father, and asked leave to go out a little into the world.

"What are you to do out in the world?" said the greybeard. "It did not fare so well either with Peter or Paul, and what do you think will become of you?"