56
his woodman’s hatchet stuck in his girdle, forth he came dancing up in front of where the elf on the thwart seat was. Up sprang the elves, bounding and buzzing about him, to know what this meant. The old man, now stretching himself out, now drawing himself together, with quips and cranks and every gesture he was master of, went circling round the entire area, singing in a drunken voice the while. All the elves there assembled, and he on the thwart-seat amongst the foremost, looked on applauding and amused. Then the elf of the thwart-seat said, “For many years we have indulged in this amusement, but never yet have we come across anything like this. Henceforth this old man mast positively come and join in the amusement with us.” The old man replied: “No need to order me; come I will. This being an impromptu effort I forgot to keep time to the music, but if you are so good as to be pleased with it I will endeavour to perform more cleverly next time.” The elf of the thwart sent affably rejoined “You must really come, you know.” Then an elf who was sitting three seats back said; “Although this old man speaks in this way, it is possible he may not come at all; we had better take some likely pledge or other from him.” “Just so, just so” said the elf on the thwart seat, “what ought we to take?” Then some suggested one thing, some another, but the elf on the thwart seat said: “We should take the wen which the old man has on his face: a wen is a lucky thing and he will hardly be willing to part with it.” Then the old man said: “You may take my nose or my eye if you like, but please do allow me to keep this wen: it would be unfair of you to take away from me without cause a thing that I have had for so many years.” “Oh! you are so unwilling to part with it as all that, then?” said the elf of the thwart seat; “that’s just the thing to take.” Whereupon up came an elf, and “off it goes,” says be, and twisted it off, causing hardly any pain. “So you must cone and play next time, now” said they, and as it was now dawn and the birds were beginning to sing, the elves went
