Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/313

Rh her mouth for a hundred years. That was what she said.

"Then it's high time you had a little to live on, granny," said the lad; and with that he gave her some of the crumbs he had. The old hag said no one had ever called her "granny" these hundred years, and she would be as a mother to him in her turn. Then she gave him a grey ball of wool, which he had only to roll on before him and he would come to whatever place he wished; but as for the painting, she said he mustn't bother himself about that, he would only fall into ill luck if he did. As for Boots, he thought it was very kind of her to say that; but he could not bear to be without the painting; so he took it under his arm, and rolled the ball of wool before him, and it was not long before he came to the king's grange, where his brothers served. There he, too, begged for a place, but all the answer he got was, they had nothing to put him to, for they had just got two new serving-men. But