oment, and came and
wanted to hold her horse while she alighted. But she jumped off and said
that there was no need for that, for the horse was so well broken in
that it stood still when she bade it and came when she called it. So
they all went into the church together, but there was scarcely any one
who listened to what the priest was saying, for they were all looking
far too much at her, and the Prince fell much more deeply in love with
her than he had been before.

When the sermon was over and she went out of the church, and was just
going to mount her horse, the Prince again came and asked her where she
came from.

'I am from Towelland,' said the King's daughter, and as she spoke she
dropped her riding-whip, and while the Prince was stooping to pick it up
she said:

'Darkness behind me, but light on my way,
That the Prince may not see where I'm going to-day!'

And she was gone again, neither could the Prince see what had become of
her. He went far and wide to inquire for that country from whence she
had said that she came, but there was no one who could tell him where it
lay, so he was forced to have patience once more.

Next Sunday some one had to go to the Prince with a comb. Kari begged
for leave to go with it, but the others reminded her of what had
happened last time, and scolded her for wanting to let the Prince see
her when she was so black and so ugly in her wooden gown, but she would
not give up asking until they gave her leave to go up to the Prince with
the comb. When she went clattering up the stairs again, out came the
Prince and took the comb and flung it at her, and ordered her to be off
as fast as she could. After that the Prince went to church, and Kari
also begged for leave to go. Again they all asked what she would do
there, she who was so black and ugly, and had no clothes that she could
be seen in by other people. The Prince or some one else might very
easily catch sight of her, they said, and then both she and they would
suffer for it; but Kari said that they had something else to do than to
look at her, and she never ceased begging until she got leave to go.

And now all happened just as it had happened twice already. She went
away to the rock and knocked at it with the stick, and then the man came
out and gave her a gown which was very much more magnificent than either
of the others. It was almost entirely made of pure gold and diamonds,
and she also got a noble horse wit