Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/99

Rh was to watch and keep; now do you keep them," she said.

So the two laughed heartily, just as though they had the lad already on wheel and stake.

"Yes! yes!" said the Troll; "I'll keep them safe enough."

And so he laid the scissors in an iron chest with three locks; but just as he dropped them into the chest, the companion snapped them up. Neither of them could see him, for he had on the Three-Sister Hat; and so the Troll locked up the chest for naught, and he hid the keys he had in the hollow eye-tooth in which he had the toothache. There it would be hard work for any one to find them, the Troll thought.

So when midnight was passed she set off home again. The companion got up behind the goat, and they lost no time on the way back.

Next day, about noon, the lad was asked down to the king's board; but then the princess gave herself such airs, and was so high and mighty, she would scarce look towards the side where the lad sat. After they had dined, she dressed her face in holiday garb, and said, as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth—

"May be you have those scissors which I begged you to keep yesterday?"

"Oh, yes, I have," said the lad, "and here they are," and with that he pulled them out, and drove them into the board till it jumped again. The princess could not have been more vexed had he