wishes to ask you if you have ever been there, and can tell her the way, for she would gladly find him again.’
‘Yes,’ said the North Wind, ‘I know where it is. I once blew an aspen leaf there, but I was so tired that for many days afterwards I was not able to blow at all. However, if you really are anxious to go there, and are not afraid to go with me, I will take you on my back, and try if I can blow you there.’
‘Get there I must,’ said she; ‘and if there is any way of going I will; and I have no fear, no matter how fast you go.’
‘Very well then,’ said the North Wind; ‘but you must sleep here to-night, for if we are ever to get there we must have the day before us.’
The North Wind woke her betimes next morning, and puffed himself up, and made himself so big and so strong that it was frightful to see him, and away they went, high up through the air, as if they would not stop until they had reached the very end of the world. Down below there was such a storm! It blew down woods and houses, and when they were above the sea the ships were wrecked by hundreds. And thus they tore on and on, and a long time went by, and then yet more time passed, and still they were above the sea, and the North Wind grew tired, and more tired, and at last so utterly weary that he was scarcely able to blow any longer, and he sank and sank, lower and lower, until at last he went so low that the crests of the waves dashed against the heels of the poor girl he was carrying. ‘Art thou afraid?’ said the North Wind. ‘I have no fear,’ said she; and it was true. But they
