y and Minnikin his. When he had walked on for a long time,
he met for the third time an old, old crook-backed hag, who had only
one eye. This eye also Minnikin stole, and when the woman screamed and
lamented, and asked what had become of her eye, Minnikin said, 'What
will you give me to get your eye back?'

'I will give thee the art to brew a hundred lasts of malt in one
brewing.'

So, for teaching that art, the old hag got her eye back, and they both
went away by different roads.

But when Minnikin had walked a short distance, it seemed to him that it
might be worth while to see what his ship could do; so he took it out of
his pocket, and first he put one foot into it, and then the other, and
no sooner had he put one foot into the ship than it became much larger,
and when he set the other foot into it, it grew as large as ships that
sail on the sea.

Then Minnikin said: 'Now go over fresh water and salt water, over high
hills and deep dales, and do not stop until thou comest to the King's
palace.'

And in an instant the ship went away as swiftly as any bird in the air
till it got just below the King's palace, and there it stood still.

From the windows of the King's palace many persons had seen Minnikin
come sailing thither, and had stood to watch him; and they were all so
astounded that they ran down to see what manner of man this could be who
came sailing in a ship through the air. But while they were running down
from the King's palace, Minnikin had got out of the ship and had put
it in his pocket again; for the moment he got out of it, it once more
became as small as it had been when he got it from the old woman, and
those who came from the King's palace could see nothing but a ragged
little boy who was standing down by the sea-shore. The King asked where
he had come from, but the boy said he did not know, nor yet could
he tell them how he had got there, but he begged very earnestly and
prettily for a place in the King's palace. If there was nothing else for
him to do, he said he would fetch wood and water for the kitchen-maid,
and that he obtained leave to do.

When Minnikin went up to the King's palace he saw that everything there
was hung with black both outside and inside, from the bottom to the top;
so he asked the kitchen-maid what that meant.

'Oh, I will tell you that,' answered the kitchen-maid. 'The King's
daughter was long ago promised away to three Trolls, and next Thursday
evening one of them