s not I," he said, "but my
apprentice, who has made them."

"I should like to see that apprentice," said the _Princess_. In fact
all three wanted to see him, and if he valued his life, he would have
to come.

He was not afraid, either of women-folk or grand-folk, said the
soldier, and if it could be any amusement to them to look at his rags,
they should soon have that pleasure.

The youngest _Princess_ recognised him at once; she pushed the
soldiers aside and ran up to him, gave him her hand, and said:

"Good day, and many thanks for all you have done for us. It is he who
freed us from the trolls in the mountain," she said to the _King_. "He
is the one I will have!" and then she pulled off his cap and showed
them the ring she had tied in his hair.

It soon came out how the captain and lieutenant had behaved, and so
they had to pay the penalty of their treachery with their lives, and
that was the end of their grandeur. But the soldier got the golden
crown and half the kingdom, and married the youngest _Princess_.

At the wedding they drank and feasted both well and long; for feast
they all could, even if they could not find the _Princesses_, and if
they have not yet done feasting and drinking they must be at it
still.

THE CAT ON THE DOVREFELL

Once on a time there was a man up in Finnmark who had caught a great
white bear, which he was going to take to the King of Denmark. Now, it
so fell out, that he came to the _Dovrefell_ just about Christmas Eve,
and there he turned into a cottage where a man lived, whose name was
Halvor, and asked the man if he could get house-room there for his
bear and himself.

"Heaven never help me, if what I say isn't true!" said the man; "but
we can't give anyone house-room just now, for every Christmas Eve such
a pack of _Trolls_ come down upon us, that we are forced to flit, and
haven't so much as a house over our own heads, to say nothing of
lending one to anyone else."

"Oh?" said the man, "if that's all, you can very well lend me your
house; my bear can lie under the stove yonder, and I can sleep in the
side-room."

Well, he begged so hard, that at last he got leave to stay there; so
the people of the house flitted out, and before they went, everything
was got ready for the _Trolls_; the tables were laid, and there was
rice porridge, and fish boiled in lye, and sausages, and all else that
was good, just as for any other grand feast.

So, when everything was ready