264 An Evening in thé Squire's Kitchen. f old man with the beard. These girls were a little queer, to be sure, almost half-witted, but that came from their håving seen fairfes/* he added, with an indignant look at the squire. "Half-witted?" said the squire, "yes, I should think so; and that 's what you are too, when you are not tipsy, and then you are raving mad. Come, boys}—Go to bed, and don't sit here and listen to such rubbish and nonsense." I don't think that's kindly spoken on your part, sir," answered the smith, with an air of superiority ; " the last time I heard rubbish and nonsense spoken, was when you made the speech on the Neberg hill the last Anniversary of our Independence." " Confounded rubbish ! " mut tered the squire, as he came trudging through the kitchen with the candle in one hand and a. bundle of Acts and some newspapers under his arm. " Oh, wait a bit, sir," said the smith, evidently with the intention of teazing the squire, " and let the boys stay a little longer too. You might like to near a trifle also. It doesn't do you good to be always reading in the law books either. I '11 tell you about a dra goon who was married to a huldre. I know it's true, for IVe heard it of old Bertha, and she's from the very parish where it happened." The squire banged the door after him angrily, and wc heard him tramping up the stairs. " Well, well, since the squire won't listen, I'U tell it to you, my lads," said the smith, addressing the boys, on whom all grandfatherly authority was lost when the smith promised to tell tales. " Many years ago," he began, "there lived a wealthy old couple on a farm in Halland. They had a son, who was a dragoon, and a fine big fellow he was. They had a dairy up in the mountains, but it wasn't like the dairies you generally see, it was a nice and well built dairy, with a regular chimney and roof and windows too. They stayed there all the summer, but when they left in the autumn, some woodcutters, or hunters, or fishermen, or such people who knock about in the mountains at that time, had noticed that the huldre people moved in there with the cattle. And amongst them was a lass, who was so lovely that they had never seen her like. "The son had often heard people apeak of this, and onc autumn
