upon
the bench.

"I took the place of servant here yesterday," said the Prince.

"May you soon have a better place, if you have come to serve here!" said
she.

"Oh, but I think I have got a kind master," said the Prince. "He has not
given me hard work to do to-day. When I have cleaned out the stable I
shall be done."

"Yes, but how will you be able to do that?" she asked again. "If you
clean it out as other people do, ten pitchforksful will come in for
every one you throw out. But I will teach you how to do it; you must
turn your pitchfork upside down, and work with the handle, and then all
will fly out of its own accord."

"Yes, I will attend to that," said the Prince, and stayed sitting where
he was the whole day, for it was soon settled between them that they
would marry each other, he and the King's daughter; so the first day of
his service with the giant did not seem long to him. But when evening
was drawing near she said that it would now be better for him to clean
out the stable before the giant came home. When he got there he had a
fancy to try if what she had said were true, so he began to work in the
same way that he had seen the stable-boys doing in his father's stables,
but he soon saw that he must give up that, for when he had worked a very
short time he had scarcely any room left to stand. So he did what the
Princess had taught him, turned the pitchfork round, and worked with the
handle, and in the twinkling of an eye the stable was as clean as if
it had been scoured. When he had done that, he went back again into the
room in which the giant had given him leave to stay, and there he walked
backward and forward on the floor, and began to hum and sing.

Then came the giant home with the goats. "Have you cleaned the stable?"
asked the giant.

"Yes, now it is clean and sweet, master," said the King's son.

"I shall see about that," said the giant, and went round to the stable,
but it was just as the Prince had said.

"You have certainly been talking to my Master-maid, for you never got
that out of your own head," said the giant.

"Master-maid! What kind of a thing is that, master?" said the Prince,
making himself look as stupid as an ass; "I should like to see that."

"Well, you will see her quite soon enough," said the giant.

On the second morning the giant had again to go out with his goats,
so he told the Prince that on that day he was to fetch home his horse,
which was out on the mountain-