the soldier to do the same as her
sisters had done. As soon as the troll was well asleep she would call
the hens, and he must then make haste and come in and put an end to
the troll.

All of a sudden they heard such a thundering, rambling noise, as if
the walls and roof were tumbling in.

"Ugh! Ugh! I smell Christian blood and bone in my house," said the
troll, sniffing with all his nine noses.

"Yes, you never saw the like! Just now a raven flew past here and
dropped a human bone down the chimney. I threw it out, but the raven
brought it back, and this went on for some time," said the _Princess_;
but she got it buried at last, she said, and she had both swept and
cleaned the place, but she supposed it still smelt.

"Yes, I can smell it well," said the troll.

"Come here and lie down in my lap and I will scratch your heads," said
the _Princess_. "The smell will be all gone when you awake."

He did so, and when he was snoring at his best she put stools and
cushions under the heads so that she could get away to call the hens.
The soldier then came in in his stockinged feet and struck at the
troll, so that eight of the heads fell off at one blow. But the sword
was too short and did not reach far enough; the ninth head woke up and
began to roar.

"Ugh! Ugh! I smell a Christian."

"Yes, here he is," answered the soldier, and before the troll could
get up and seize hold of him the soldier struck him another blow and
the last head rolled along the floor.

You can well imagine how glad the _Princesses_ became now that they no
longer had to sit and scratch the trolls' heads; they did not know how
they could do enough for him who had saved them. The youngest
_Princess_ took off her gold ring and knotted it in his hair. They
then took with them as much gold and silver as they thought they
could carry and set off on their way home.

[Illustration: As soon as they tugged at the rope, the Captain and the
Lieutenant pulled up the Princesses, the one after the other.]

As soon as they tugged at the rope the captain and the lieutenant
pulled up the _Princesses_, the one after the other. But when they
were safely up, the soldier thought it was foolish of him not to have
gone up before the _Princesses_, for he had not very much belief in
his comrades. He thought he would first try them, so he put a heavy
lump of gold in the basket and got out of the way. When the basket was
half-way up they cut the rope and the lump of gold