es that shone so bright and lovely
between the trees. He didn't know at all where he was or whither he
was going, but he gave himself no more time to rest than when his
horse cropped a bit of grass, and he took a snack out of his knapsack
when they came to one of those green glades. So he went on walking and
riding by turns, and as for the wood there seemed to be no end to it.

But at dusk the next day he saw a light gleaming away through the
trees.

"Would there were folk hereaway," thought _Halvor_, "that I might warm
myself a bit and get a morsel to keep body and soul together."

When he got up to it he saw the light came from a wretched little hut,
and through the window he saw an old old, couple inside. They were as
grey-headed as a pair of doves, and the old wife had such a nose! why,
it was so long she used it for a poker to stir the fire as she sat in
the ingle.

"Good evening," said _Halvor_.

"Good evening," said the old wife.

"But what errand can you have in coming hither?" she went on, "for no
Christian folk have been here these hundred years and more."

Well, _Halvor_ told her all about himself, and how he wanted to get to
_Soria Moria Castle_, and asked if she knew the way thither.

"No," said the old wife, "that I don't, but see now, here comes the
Moon, I'll ask her, she'll know all about it, for doesn't she shine on
everything?"

So when the Moon stood clear and bright over the tree-tops, the old
wife went out.

"THOU MOON, THOU MOON," she screamed, "canst thou tell me the way to
_Soria Moria Castle_?"

"No," said the Moon, "that I can't, for the last time I shone there a
cloud stood before me."

"Wait a bit still," said the old wife to _Halvor_, "bye and bye comes
the West Wind; he's sure to know it, for he puffs and blows round
every corner."

"Nay, nay," said the old wife when she went out again, "you don't mean
to say you've got a horse too; just turn the poor beastie loose in our
'toun,' and don't let him stand there and starve to death at the
door."

Then she ran on:

"But won't you swop him away to me?--we've got an old pair of boots
here, with which you can take twenty miles at each stride; those you
shall have for your horse, and so you'll get all the sooner to _Soria
Moria Castle_."

That _Halvor_ was willing to do at once; and the old wife was so glad
at having the horse, she was ready to dance and skip for joy.

"For now," she said, "I shall be able to ride to church