Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/349

Rh and all the bog-holes were full of water. The lad took the short cut to Mother Roundabout, and he sang and sprang as he was ever wont. Now he took another way than the one he went before; but just as he leaped and jumped, he got upon the bridge over the moor again, and from it he had to jump over a bog-hole on to a turf, that he might not dirty his shoes. But plump it went, and down it went under him, and there was no stopping till he found himself in a nasty deep, dark hole. At first he could see nothing; but when he had been there a while he got a glimpse of a rat with a bunch of keys at the tip of her tail, who came wiggle-waggle up to him.

"What! you here, my boy?" said the rat. "That was nice of you to wish to see me so soon again. You are very eager, that I can see; but you really must wait a while, for there is still something wanting to my dower, but the next time you come it shall be all right."

When she had said this she set before him all kinds of scraps and bits in egg-shells, such as rats eat and like; but the lad thought it all looked like meat that had been already eaten once, and he wasn't hungry, he said; and all the time he thought, "If I could only