and flitted away as far as
they could from the Castle that lay _East of the Sun and West of the
Moon_.
[Illustration: And flitted away as far as they could from the Castle that
lay East of the Sun and West of the Moon.]
THE BLUE BELT
Once on a time there was an old beggar-woman, who had gone out to beg.
She had a little lad with her, and when she had got her bag full she
struck across the hills towards her own home. So when they had gone a
bit up the hill-side, they came upon a little _Blue Belt_ which lay
where two paths met, and the lad asked his mother's leave to pick it
up.
"No," said she, "maybe there's witchcraft in it;" and so with threats
she forced him to follow her. But when they had gone a bit further,
the lad said he must turn aside a moment out of the road; and
meanwhile his mother sat down on a tree-stump. But the lad was a long
time gone, for as soon as he got so far into the wood that the old
dame could not see him, he ran off to where the _Belt_ lay, took it
up, tied it round his waist, and lo! he felt as strong as if he could
lift the whole hill. When he got back, the old dame was in a great
rage, and wanted to know what he had been doing all that while. "You
don't care how much time you waste, and yet you know the night is
drawing on, and we must cross the hill before it is dark!" So on they
tramped; but when they had got about half-way, the old dame grew
weary, and said she must rest under a bush.
"Dear mother," said the lad, "mayn't I just go up to the top of this
high crag while you rest, and try if I can't see some sign of folk
hereabouts?"
Yes! he might do that; so when he had got to the top he saw a light
shining from the north. So he ran down and told his mother.
"We must get on, mother; we are near a house, for I see a bright light
shining quite close to us in the north." Then she rose and shouldered
her bag, and set off to see; but they hadn't gone far, before there
stood a steep spur of the hill, right across their path.
"Just as I thought!" said the old dame, "now we can't go a step
farther; a pretty bed we shall have here!"
But the lad took the bag under one arm, and his mother under the
other, and ran straight up the steep crag with them.
"Now, don't you see? Don't you see that we are close to a house? Don't
you see that bright light?"
But the old dame said those were no Christian folk, but _Trolls_, for
she was at home in all that forest far and near, a
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