do mine ! ' When the lad came up the battle had already begun,
and the king was in a bad plight ; but the lad rushed into the
thick of the fight and put the enemy to flight. The king and his
people wondered much who it could be who had come to help
them; but no one came so near him as to be able to talk to him,
and when the battle was over he was gone. When they rode
home, they found the lad still stuck in the bog, kicking away at
his three-legged nag, and they began laughing again.
" Just look !
there sits that fool still !" they said.
The next day when they set out again, the lad was still sitting there ; they laughed again and made game of him, but no sooner had they ridden past him, before the lad ran to the lime-tree, and all happened just as on the first day. Every one wondered who this strange warrior could be that had helped the king. No one, of course, guessed it could be the lad ! When they were on their way home at night and saw the lad still sitting there on his horse, they jeered at him again, and one of
