Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/424

402 they stuffed into a cask and cast him into the lake, and so they set off home to the king's palace, with the maiden, and the horse, and the bird, and linden, and everything. But the maiden wouldn't say a word; she got pale and wretched to look at. The horse got so thin and starved, all his bones scarce clung together. The bird moped and shone no more, and the linden withered away.

Meanwhile the fox walked about outside the town where the inn was with all its jollity, and he listened and waited for the king's son and the lovely maiden, and wondered why they did not come back. So he went hither and thither, and waited and longed, and at last he went down to the strand, and there he saw the cask which lay on the lake drifting, and called out—

"Are you driven about there, you empty cask?"

"Oh, it is I," said the king's son inside the cask.

Then the fox swam out into the lake as fast as he could, and got hold of the cask and drew it on shore. Then he began to gnaw at the hoops; and when he had got them off the cask, he called out to the king's son, "Kick and stamp!"

So the king's son struck out and stamped and kicked, till every stave burst asunder, and out he jumped from the cask. Then they went together to the king's palace, and when they got there, the maiden grew lovely and began to speak; the horse got so fat and sleek that every hair beamed; the bird shone and sang; the linden began to bloom and glitter with its leaves; and at last the maiden said—

"Here he is who set us free!"

So they planted the linden in the garden, and the