ust have five
hundred men with me, and provisions for five weeks, for I have a long
voyage before me.'

So the King said he should have these things, but the King was afraid
that he had no ship large enough to carry them all.

'But I have a ship of my own,' said Minnikin, and he took the one which
the old woman had given him out of his pocket. The King laughed at him
and thought that it was only one of his jokes, but Minnikin begged
him just to give him what he had asked for, and then he should see
something. Then all that Minnikin had asked for was brought; and first
he ordered them to lay the cable in the ship, but there was no one who
was able to lift it, and there was only room for one or two men at a
time in the little bit of a ship. Then Minnikin himself took hold of the
cable, and laid one or two links of it into the ship, and as he threw
the links into it the ship grew bigger and bigger, and at last it was
so large that the cable, and the five hundred men, and provisions, and
Minnikin himself, had room enough.

'Now go over fresh water and salt water, over hill and dale, and do not
stop until thou comest to where the King's daughter is,' said Minnikin
to the ship, and off it went in a moment over land and water till the
wind whistled and moaned all round about it.

When they had sailed thus a long, long way, the ship stopped short in
the middle of the sea.

'Ah, now we have got there,' said Minnikin, 'but how we are to get back
again is a very different thing.'

Then he took the cable and tied one end of it round his body. 'Now I
must go to the bottom,' he said, 'but when I give a good jerk to the
cable and want to come up again, you must all pull like one man, or
there will be an end of all life both for you and for me.' So saying
he sprang into the water, and yellow bubbles rose up all around him. He
sank lower and lower, and at last he came to the bottom. There he saw a
large hill with a door in it, and in he went. When he had got inside he
found the other Princess sitting sewing, but when she saw Minnikin she
clapped her hands.

'Ah, heaven be praised!' she cried, 'I have not seen a Christian man
since I came here.'

'I have come for you,' said Minnikin.

'Alas! you will not be able to get me,' said the King's daughter. 'It is
no use even to think of that; if the Troll catches sight of you he will
take your life.'

'You had better tell me about him,' said Minnikin. 'Where is he gone? It
would b