ettle him? Is that what you're thinking of?"
said she.

"Nothing easier," said he; at any rate he would try. He would just say
he wished the old dame would stay and keep house for him a day or two,
and then he would take the lad out with him up the hill to quarry
corner-stones, and roll down a great rock on him. All this the lad lay
and listened to.

Next day the _Troll_--for it was a _Troll_ as clear as day--asked if
the old dame would stay and keep house for him a few days; and as the
day went on he took a great iron crowbar, and asked the lad if he had
a mind to go with him up the hill and quarry a few corner-stones. With
all his heart, he said, and went with him; and so, after they had
split a few stones, the _Troll_ wanted him to go down below and look
after cracks in the rock; and while he was doing this the _Troll_
worked away, and wearied himself with his crowbar till he moved a
whole crag out of its bed, which came rolling right down on the place
where the lad was; but he held it up till he could get on one side,
and then let it roll on.

"Oh!" said the lad to the _Troll_, "now I see what you mean to do with
me. You want to crush me to death; so just go down yourself and look
after the cracks and refts in the rock, and I'll stand up above."

The _Troll_ did not dare to do otherwise than the lad bade him, and
the end of it was that the lad rolled down a great rock, which fell
upon the _Troll_ and broke one of his thighs.

"Well! you _are_ in a sad plight," said the lad, as he strode down,
lifted up the rock, and set the man free. After that he had to put him
on his back and carry him home; so he ran with him as fast as a horse,
and shook him so that the _Troll_ screamed and screeched as if a knife
were run into him. And when he got home, they had to put the _Troll_
to bed, and there he lay in a sad pickle.

When the night wore on, the _Troll_ began to talk to the old dame
again, and to wonder how ever they could be rid of the lad.

"Well," said the old dame, "if you can't hit on a plan to get rid of
him, I'm sure I can't."

"Let me see," said the _Troll_; "I've got twelve lions in a garden; if
they could only get hold of the lad, they'd soon tear him to pieces."

So the old dame said it would be easy enough to get him there. She
would sham sick, and say she felt so poorly, nothing would do her any
good but lion's milk. All that the lad lay and listened to; and when
he got up in the morning his mother