Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/65

Rh it in turn like a goose, and so hatch the gosling. The first lay sitting eight days, and sat and sat, but nothing came of it; meanwhile the others had to drag about to find food both for themselves and her. At last one of them began to scold her.

"Well," said the one that sat, "you did not chip the egg yourself before you could cry, not you; but this egg, I think, has something in it, for it seems to me to mumble, and this is what it says, 'Herrings and brose, porridge and milk, all at once.' And now you may come and sit for eight days too, and we will change and change about and get food for you."



So when all five had sat on it eight days, the fifth heard plainly that there was a gosling in the egg, which screeched out, "Herrings and brose, porridge and milk." So she picked a hole in it, but instead of a gosling out came a man child, and awfully ugly it was, with a big head and little body. And the