Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/299

Rh "Do you think this is big enough?" said the man.

"I almost think it is," said the lad. "We will fathom it, and then we shall soon see. You go on the other side of the fir, and I will stand here. If we are not good enough to make our hands meet, it will be big enough; but mind you stretch out well. Stretch out well, do you hear?" said the lad, as he took out his thongs. As for the man, he did all the lad told him.

"Yes," said the lad, "we shall meet nicely, I can see. But stop a bit, and I'll stretch your hands better," he said, as he slipped a running knot over his wrists and drew it tight, and bound him fast to the tree; then out came the cat-o'-nine-tails, and he fell to flogging the old hunks as fast as he could, and all the while he cried out—

"This is the lad who sold the pig! and this is the lad who sold the pig!"

Nor did he leave off till he thought the old hunks had enough, and that he had got his rights for the pig; and then he loosed him, and left him lying under the tree.

Now, when the man did not come home, they made