ONCE on a time there was a farmer, who had three sons; his means were
small, and he was old and weak, and his sons would take to nothing. A
fine large wood belonged to the farm, and one day the father told his
sons to go and hew wood, and try to pay off some of his debts.
Well, after a long talk, he got them to set off, and the eldest was to
go first. But when he had got well into the wood, and began to hew at a
mossy old fir, what should he see coming up to him but a great sturdy
Troll.
“If you hew in this wood of mine,” said the Troll, “I’ll kill you!”
When the lad heard that, he threw the axe down, and ran off home as fast
as he could lay legs to the ground; so he came in quite out of breath,
and told them what had happened, but his father called him
“hare-heart,”—no Troll would ever have scared him from hewing when he
was young, he said.
Next day the second son’s turn came, and he fared just the same. He had
scarce hewn three strokes at the fir, before the Troll came to him too,
and said,—
“If you hew in this wood of mine, I’ll kill you!”
The lad dared not so much as look at him, but threw down the axe, took
to his heels, and came scampering home just like his brother. So when he
got home, his father was angry again, and said no Troll had ever scared
him when he was young.
The third day Boots wanted to set off.
“You, indeed!” said the two elder brothers; “you’ll do it bravely, no
doubt! you, who have scarce ever set your foot out of the door.”
Boots said nothing to this, but only begged them to give him a good
store of food. His mother had no cheese, so she set the pot on the fire
to make him a little, and he put it into a scrip and set off. So when he
had hewn a bit, the Troll came to him too, and said,—
“If you hew in this wood of mine, I’ll kill you.”
But the lad was not slow; he pulled his cheese out of the scrip in a
trice, and squeezed it till the whey spurted out.
“Hold your tongue!” he cried to the Troll, “or I’ll squeeze you as I
squeeze the water out of this white stone.”
“Nay, dear friend!” said the Troll, “only spare me, and I’ll help you to
hew.”
Well, on those terms the lad was willing to spare him, and the Troll
hewed so bravely, that they felled and cut up many, many fathoms in the
day.