ng saw the youngster dragging half the forest after him, he got both
angry and afraid; but he thought he had better be a little careful with
him, since he was strong.

"Well, you are a wonderful workman, to be sure," said the king; "but how
much do you eat at a time, because I suppose you are hungry now?"

Oh, when he was to have a proper meal of porridge, it would take twelve
barrels of meal to make it, thought the youngster; but when he had put
that away, he could wait awhile, of course, for his next meal.

It took some time to boil such a dish of porridge, and meantime he was
to bring in a little firewood for the cook. He put a lot of wood on a
sledge, but when he was coming through the door with it he was a little
rough and careless again. The house got almost out of shape, and all the
joists creaked; he was very near dragging down the whole palace. When
the porridge was nearly ready, they sent him out to call the people home
from the fields. He shouted so that the mountains and hills around rang
with echoes, but the people did not come quick enough for him. He came
to blows with them, and killed twelve of them.

"You have killed twelve men," said the king; "and you eat for many times
twelve; but how many do you work for?"

"For many times twelve as well," answered the youngster.

When he had finished his porridge, he was to go into the barn to thrash.
He took one of the rafters from the roof and made a flail out of it, and
when the roof was about to fall in, he took a big pine tree with
branches and all and put it up instead of the rafter. So he went on
thrashing the grain and the straw and the hay all together. This was
doing more damage than good, for the corn and the chaff flew about
together, and a cloud of dust arose over the whole palace.

When he had nearly finished thrashing, enemies came into the country, as
a war was coming on. So the king told the youngster that he should take
men with him to go and meet the enemy and fight them, for the king
thought they would surely kill him.

No, he would not have any men with him to be cut to pieces; he would
fight by himself, answered the youngster.

"So much the better," thought the king; "the sooner I shall get rid of
him; but he must have a proper club."

They sent for the smith; he forged a club which weighed a hundredweight.
"A very nice thing to crack nuts with," said the youngster. So the smith
made one of three hundredweight. "It would be very well