that he might stay on
condition that he should do any work that she might set him to next
morning. So the bargain being concluded, the young man curled himself up
in his corner and went to sleep.

The dirt lay thicker than ever on the floor of the cave when the young
man took the spade and began his work. He could not clear it any more
than his brothers had done, and at last the spade itself stuck in
the earth so that he could not pull it out. The youth stared at it
in despair, then the old beggar's words flashed into his mind, and he
cried: 'Tritill, Tritill, come and help me!'

And Tritill stood beside him and asked what he wanted. The youth told
him all his story, and when he had finished, the old man said: 'Spade
and shovel do your duty,' and they danced about the cave till, in a
short time, there was not a speck of dust left on the floor. As soon as
it was quite clean Tritill went his way.

With a light heart the young man awaited the return of the ogress. When
she came in she looked carefully round, and then said to him: 'You did
not do that quite alone. However, as the floor is clean I will leave
your head on.'

The following morning the ogress told the young man that he must take
all the feathers out of her pillows and spread them to dry in the sun.
But if one feather was missing when she came back at night his head
should pay for it.'

The young man fetched the pillows, and shook out all the feathers, and
oh! what quantities of them there were! He was thinking to himself,
as he spread them out carefully, how lucky it was that the sun was so
bright and that there was no wind, when suddenly a breeze sprang up,
and in a moment the feathers were dancing high in the air. At first the
youth tried to collect them again, but he soon found that it was no use,
and he cried in despair: 'Tritill, Litill, and all my birds, come and
help me!'

He had hardly said the words when there they all were; and when the
birds had brought all the feathers back again, Tritill, and Litill, and
he, put them away in the pillows, as the ogress had bidden him. But one
little feather they kept out, and told the young man that if the ogress
missed it he was to thrust it up her nose. Then they all vanished,
Tritill, Litill, and the birds.

Directly the ogress returned home she flung herself with all her weight
on the bed, and the whole cave quivered under her. The pillows were soft
and full instead of being empty, which surprised her,