Page:Christmas Fireside Stories.djvu/209

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PniK, 197 guests again to a feast and put the pot on the block in the middle of the room. The guests thought the king was gone sheer mad, and went about making game of him. He cackled and chuckled round the pot, saying all the time, " Wait a bit, it will boil soon, — it will boil directly ; " but there was no more chance of its boiling on the block than on the floor. So the king guessed that he had been tricked by Peik that time as well. He tore his hair, and would not rest till he set out to kili him ; he should not spare him this time, whether he had got any thing to say for himself or not. But Peik was prepared to receive him again. He killed a wether and took the bladder and filled it with the blood of the slaughtered animal. He then put the bladder in his sister's bosom and told her what she should say when the king came. " Where is Peik ? " shouted the king. He was in such a rage that his voice trembled. "He is so poorly, that he is not able to move," answered the sister, " and so he thought he would try and get some sleep." " You must wake him up ! " said the king. No, she dared not do it ; he was so hasty. " Well, I am still more hasty," said the king ; " and if you don't wake him I*ll " and with that he put his hand to his side for his knife. No, no ! she would rather wake him ; but Peik turned round in his bed in great rage, pulled out his knife and stabbed her in the bosom, but the knife hit only the bladder ; a stream of blood gushed out, and she fell down on the floor as if she were dead. " What a villain you are, Peik," said the king, " you have stabbed your own sister and that while the king stands by and looks at it." " Oh, there isn't much danger, as long as I have got breath in my nostrils," said Peik, and took a ram's horn, which he began blowing ; and when he had blown a wedding march on it he put the horn to his sister's nostrils and blew life into her again and she rose up as if nothing had been the matter with her.