Tales from the Fjeld Part 30

"'No! no! shear, shear,' bawled out the goody, who jumped about and clipped like a pair of scissors under her husband's nose. In her shrewishness she took such little heed that she tripped over a beam on the bridge, and down she went _plump_ into the stream.

"''Tis hard to wean any one from bad ways,' said the man, 'but it were strange if I were not sometimes in the right, I too.'

"Then he swam out into the hole and caught his wife by the hair of her head, and so got her head above water.

"'Shall we reap the field now?' were the first words he said.

"'Shear! shear! shear!' screeched the goody.

"'I'll teach you to shear,' said the man, as he ducked her under the water; but it was no good, they must shear it, she said, as soon as ever she came up again.

"'I can't think anything else than that the goody is mad,' said the man to himself. 'Many are mad and never know it; many have wit and never show it; but all the same, I'll try her once more.'

"But as soon as ever he ducked her under the water again, she held her hands up out of the water and began to clip with her fingers like a pair of shears. Then the man fell into a great rage and ducked her down both well and long; but while he was about it, the goody's head fell down below the water, and she got so heavy all at once, that he had to let her go.

"'No! no!' he said, 'you wish to drag me down with you into the hole, but you may lie there by yourself.'

"So the goody was left in the river.

"But after a while the man thought it was ill she should lie there and not get Christian burial, and so he went down the course of the stream and hunted and searched for her, but for all his pains he could not find her. Then he came with all his men and brought his neighbours with him, and they all in a body began to drag the stream and to search for her all along it. But for all their searching they found no goody.

"'Oh!' said the man, 'I have it. All this is no good, we search in the wrong place. This goody was a sort by herself; there was not such another in the world while she was alive. She was so cross and contrary, and I'll be bound it is just the same now she is dead. We had better just go and hunt for her up stream, and drag for her above the force,[1]

maybe she has floated up thither.'

[Footnote 1: Waterfall.]

"And so it was. They went up stream and sought for her above the force, and there lay the goody, sure enough! Yes! She was well called GOODY GAINST-THE-STREAM."

HOW TO WIN A PRINCE.

"Once on a time there was a king's son who made love to a la.s.s, but after they had become great friends and were as good as betrothed, the prince began to think little of her, and he got it into his head that she wasn't clever enough for him, and so he wouldn't have her.

"So he thought how he might be rid of her; and at last he said he would take her to wife all the same, if she could come to him--

'Not driving, And not riding; Not walking, And not carried; Not fasting, And not full-fed; Not naked, And not clad; Not in the daylight, And not by night.'

"For all that he fancied she could never do.

"So she took three barleycorns and swallowed them, and then she was not fasting, and yet not full-fed; and next she threw a net over her, and so she was

'Not naked, And yet not clad.'

Next she got a ram and sat on him, so that her feet touched the ground; and so she waddled along, and was

'Not driving, And not riding; Not walking, And not carried.'

And all this happened in the twilight, betwixt night and day.

"So when she came to the guard at the palace, she begged that she might have leave to speak with the prince; but they wouldn't open the gate, she looked such a figure of fun.

"But for all that the noise woke up the prince, and he went to the window to see what it was.

"So she waddled up to the window, and twisted off one of the ram's horns, and took it and rapped with it against the window.

"And so they had to let her in, and have her for their princess."

BOOTS AND THE BEASTS.

"Once on a time there was a man who had an only son, but he lived in need and wretchedness, and when he lay on his death-bed, he told his son he had nothing in the world but a sword, a bit of coa.r.s.e linen, and a few crusts of bread--that was all he had to leave him. Well! when the man was dead, the lad made up his mind to go out into the world to try his luck; so he girded the sword about him, and took the crusts and laid them in the bit of linen for his travelling fare; for you must know they lived far away up on a hillside in the wood, far from folk. Now the way he went took him over a fell, and when he had got up so high that he could look over the country, he set his eyes on a lion, a falcon, and an ant, who stood there quarrelling over a dead horse. The lad was sore afraid when he saw the lion, but he called out to him and said he must come and settle the strife between them and share the horse, so that each should get what he ought to have.

"So the lad took his sword and shared the horse, as well as he could. To the lion he gave the carca.s.s and the greater portion; the falcon got some of the entrails and other t.i.tbits; and the ant got the head. When he had done, he said,--

"'Now I think it is fairly shared. The lion shall have most, because he is biggest and strongest; the falcon shall have the best, because he is nice and dainty; and the ant shall have the skull, because he loves to creep about in holes and crannies.'

"Yes! they were all well pleased with his sharing; and so they asked him what he would like to have for sharing the horse so well.

"'Oh,' he said, 'if I have done you a service, and you are pleased with it, I am also pleased; but I won't be paid.'

"'Yes; but he must have something,' they said.

"'If you won't have anything else,' said the lion, 'you shall have three wishes.'

"But the lad knew not what to wish for; and so the lion asked him if he wouldn't wish that he might be able to turn himself into a lion; and the two others asked him if he wouldn't wish to be able to turn himself into a falcon and an ant. Yes! all that seemed to him good and right; and so he wished these three wishes.

"Then he threw aside his sword and wallet, turned himself into a falcon, and began to fly. So he flew on and on, till he came over a great lake; but when he had almost flown across it he got so tired and sore on the wing he couldn't fly any longer; and as he saw a steep rock that rose out of the water, he perched on it and rested himself. He thought it a wondrous strong rock, and walked about it for a while; but when he had taken a good rest, he turned himself again into a little falcon, and flew away till he came to the king's grange. There he perched on a tree, just before the princess's windows. When she saw the falcon she set her heart on catching it. So she lured it to her; and as soon as the falcon came under the cas.e.m.e.nt she was ready, and pop! she shut to the window, and caught the bird and put him into a cage.

"In the night the lad turned himself into an ant and crept out of the cage; and then he turned himself into his own shape, and went up and sat down by the princess's bed. Then she got so afraid that she fell to screeching out and awoke the king, who came into her room and asked whatever was the matter.

"'Oh!' said the princess, 'there is some one here.'

"But in a trice the lad became an ant, crept into the cage, and turned himself into a falcon. The king could see nothing for her to be afraid of; so he said to the princess it must have been the nightmare riding her. But he was hardly out of the door before it was all the same story over again. The lad crept out of the cage as an ant, and then became his own self, and sat down by the bedside of the princess.

"Then she screamed loud, and the king came again to see what was the matter.

"'There is some one here,' screamed the princess. But the lad crept into the cage again, and sat perched up there like a falcon. The king looked and hunted high and low; and when he could see nothing he got cross that his rest was broken, and said it was all a trick of the princess.

"'If you scream like that again,' he said, 'you shall soon know that your father is the king.'

"But for all that, the king's back was scarcely turned before the lad was by the princess's side again. This time she did not scream, although she was so afraid she did not know which way to turn.