anger, throw it in the fire. Then I will appear before you.'

'Thank you,' said Halfman, and went his way, while the fish swam back to
its home.

The country was strange to Halfman, and he wandered about without
knowing where he was going, till he suddenly found the ogress standing
before him. 'Ah, Halfman, have I got you at last? You killed my
daughters and helped your brothers to escape. What do you think I shall
do with you?'

'Whatever you like!' said Halfman.

'Come into my house, then,' said the ogress, and he followed her.

'Look here!' she called to her husband, 'I have got hold of Halfman. I
am going to roast him, so be quick and make up the fire!'

So the ogre brought wood, and heaped it up till the flames roared up the
chimney. Then he turned to his wife and said: 'It is all ready, let us
put him on!'

'What is the hurry, my good ogre?' asked Halfman. 'You have me in your
power, and I cannot escape. I am so thin now, I shall hardly make one
mouthful. Better fatten me up; you will enjoy me much more.'

'That is a very sensible remark,' replied the ogre; 'but what fattens
you quickest?'

'Butter, meat, and red wine,' answered Halfman.

'Very good; we will lock you into this room, and here you shall stay
till you are ready for eating.'

So Halfman was locked into the room, and the ogre and his wife brought
him his food. At the end of three months he said to his gaolers: 'Now I
have got quite fat; take me out, and kill me.'

'Get out, then!' said the ogre.

'But,' went on Halfman, 'you and your wife had better go to invite your
friends to the feast, and your daughter can stay in the house and look
after me!'

'Yes, that is a good idea,' answered they.

'You had better bring the wood in here,' continued Halfman, 'and I will
split it up small, so that there may be no delay in cooking me.'

So the ogress gave Halfman a pile of wood and an axe, and then set out
with her husband, leaving Halfman and her daughter busy in the house.

After he had chopped for a little while he called to the girl, 'Come and
help me, or else I shan't have it all ready when your mother gets back.'

'All right,' said she, and held a billet of wood for him to chop.

But he raised his axe and cut off her head, and ran away like the wind.
By-and-by the ogre and his wife returned and found their daughter
lying without her head, and they began to cry and sob, saying, 'This is
Halfman's work, why did we listen to him?' But H