Page:The pink fairy book (IA pinkfairybooklan00lang).pdf/167

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I KNOW WHAT I HAVE LEARNED
151

come hurrying as if the whole house was about to fall. You may set your mind at rest: the cow has not calved yet.'

The man now asked her to come and help him home with the three sacks of money. She did not believe him very much, but he continued to assure her that it was quite true, till at last she gave in and went with him. When they came to the spot there had again been a

round black and white illustration of a troll waist deep in water scooping out a fish with a ladle. Behind them a young woman and an old man watch with amazement from where they are sitting in a dough trough that they are using as a boat. The dough trough is already mostly full of fish. The troll has pointed ears, a large head, large buck teeth, a muscular chest and arms, and dark skin. He is smiling like he is having a good time.
THE TROLL LADLES UP THE FISHES

thief there and taken the money. It was no wonder that the woman was angry about this, but the man only said, 'Ah, if you only knew what I have learned.'

A third time the man set out—to visit his eldest daughter. When he came to a mound he sat down on the east side of it and ate the dry bread which his wife had given him to take with him. The daughter then came out of the mound and invited her father to come inside.