promised him good pay and leave of absence if he wished it, but the youngster wanted only more work. " What shall I do now ? " he said. As soon as the king had had time to consider, he told him that he must go the hill-troll, who had taken his grandfather's sword. The troll had a castle by the sea, where no one dared to go. The youngster put some cartloads of food into his bag and set out again. He travelled both long and far, over woods and hills and wild moors, till he came to the big mountains where the troll, who had taken the sword of the king's grandfather, was living. But the troll seldom came out in the open air, and the moun- tain was well closed, so the youngster was not man enough to get inside. So he joined a gang of quarrymen who were living at a farm on top of the hill, and who were quarrying stones in the hills about there. They had never had such help before, for he broke and hammered away at the rocks till the mountain cracked, and big stones of the size of a house rolled down the hill. But when he rested to get his dinner, for which he was going to have one of the cartloads in his bag, he found it was all eaten up. •' I have generally a good appetite myself," said the youngster ; •' but the one who has been here can do a trifle more than I, for he lias eaten all the bones as well." Thus the first day passed ; and he fared no better the second. On the third day he set out to break stones again, taking with him the third load of food ; but he lay down behind the bag and pre- tended to be asleep. All of a sudden, a troll with seven heads came out of the mountain and began to eat his food. " It's all ready for me here, and I will eat,*' said the troll.
- ' We will see about that," said the youngster, and hit the troll
with his club, so the heads rolled down the hill. So he went into the mountain which the troll had come out of and in there stood a horse eating out of a barrel of glowing cinders^ and behind it stood a barrel of oats. '• Why don't you eat out of the barrel of oats ? " asked the youngster.
