Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/385

Rh withy round its neck, and led the billy-goat home by it."

"Well, be still, mother, and see if I don't do as you say next time."

Next day he set off for the bridge again to take toll, and so a man came with a load of butter, and wanted to cross. But the lad said he couldn't cross unless he paid toll.

"I've nothing to pay it with," said the man.

"Well, then, you can't cross," said the lad; "but you have goods, and I'll take them instead of money."

So the man gave him a pat of butter, and then he had leave to cross the bridge; and the lad strode off to a grove of willows, and twisted a withy, and twined it round the butter, and dragged it home along the road; but so long as he went he left some of the butter behind him, and when he got home there was none left.

"And what did you take to-day?" asked his mother.

"There came a man with a load of butter, and he gave me a pat."

"Butter!" said the goody, "where is it?"

"I did as you bade me, mother," said the lad. "I tied a withy round the pat and led it home; but it was all lost by the way."

"Oh," said the goody, "you were born a fool, and you'll die a fool. Now you are not one bit better off for all your toil; but had you been like other folk, you might have had both meat and brandy, and both hay and tools. If you don't know better how to behave, I don't know what's to be done with you. Maybe you might be more like the rest of the world, and get some