seen the child began to cry, and
though the Witch tried to quiet it she could not manage it; so she
went below to where the King was sleeping with the child on her arm,
and awakened him, scolding him for leaving them alone on deck, while
he and all the crew were asleep. It was great carelessness of him, she
said, to leave no one to watch the ship with her.

Sigurd was greatly surprised to hear his Queen scold him so much, for
she had never said an angry word to him before; but he thought it was
quite excusable in this case, and tried to quiet the child along with
her, but it was no use. Then he went and wakened the sailors, and bade
them hoist the sails, for a breeze had sprung up and was blowing
straight towards the harbour.

They soon reached the land which Sigurd was to rule over, and found
all the people sorrowful for the old King's death, but they became
glad when they got Sigurd back to the Court, and made him King over
them.

The King's son, however, hardly ever stopped crying from the time he
had been taken from his mother on the deck of the ship, although he
had always been such a good child before, so that at last the King had
to get a nurse for him--one of the maids of the Court. As soon as the
child got into her charge he stopped crying, and behaved well as
before.

After the sea-voyage it seemed to the King that the Queen had altered
very much in many ways, and not for the better. He thought her much
more haughty and stubborn and difficult to deal with than she used to
be. Before long others began to notice this as well as the King. In
the Court there were two young fellows, one of eighteen years old, the
other of nineteen, who were very fond of playing chess, and often sat
long inside playing at it. Their room was next the Queen's, and often
during the day they heard the Queen talking.

One day they paid more attention than usual when they heard her talk,
and put their ears close to a crack in the wall between the rooms, and
heard the Queen say quite plainly, 'When I yawn a little, then I am a
nice little maiden; when I yawn half-way, then I am half a troll; and
when I yawn fully, then I am a troll altogether.'

As she said this she yawned tremendously, and in a moment had put on
the appearance of a fearfully ugly troll. Then there came up through
the floor of the room a three-headed Giant with a trough full of meat,
who saluted her as his sister and set down the trough before her. She
began to eat