said she was worse than she
looked, and she thought she should never be right again unless she
could get some lion's milk.

"Then I'm afraid you'll be poorly a long time, mother," said the lad,
"for I'm sure I don't know where any is to be got."

"Oh! if that be all," said the _Troll_, "there's no lack of lion's
milk, if we only had the man to fetch it;" and then he went on to say
how his brother had a garden with twelve lions in it, and how the lad
might have the key if he had a mind to milk the lions. So the lad took
the key and a milking pail, and strode off; and when he unlocked the
gate and got into the garden, there stood all the twelve lions on
their hind-paws, rampant and roaring at him. But the lad laid hold of
the biggest, and led him about by the fore-paws, and dashed him
against stocks and stones till there wasn't a bit of him left but the
two paws. So when the rest saw that, they were so afraid that they
crept up and lay at his feet like so many curs. After that they
followed him about wherever he went, and when he got home, they lay
down outside the house, with their fore-paws on the door sill.

"Now, mother, you'll soon be well," said the lad, when he went in,
"for here is the lion's milk."

He had just milked a drop in the pail.

But the _Troll_, as he lay in bed, swore it was all a lie. He was sure
the lad was not the man to milk lions.

When the lad heard that, he forced the _Troll_ to get out of bed,
threw open the door, and all the lions rose up and seized the _Troll_,
and at last the lad had to make them leave their hold.

That night the _Troll_ began to talk to the old dame again. "I'm sure
I can't tell how to put this lad out of the way--he is so awfully
strong; can't you think of some way?"

"No," said the old dame, "if you can't tell, I'm sure I can't."

"Well!" said the _Troll_, "I have two brothers in a castle; they are
twelve times as strong as I am, and that's why I was turned out and
had to put up with this farm. They hold that castle, and round it
there is an orchard with apples in it, and whoever eats those apples
sleeps for three days and three nights. If we could only get the lad
to go for the fruit, he wouldn't be able to keep from tasting the
apples, and as soon as ever he fell asleep my brothers would tear him
in pieces."

The old dame said she would sham sick, and say she could never be
herself again unless she tasted those apples; for she had set her
heart on them.