the third
he went straight up.

"If you'll do what I bid you," she said, "you may have which of us you
please."

"Yes;" he was willing enough; so she told him how three _Trolls_ had
set them down in the earth there; but before they had lived in the
castle up among the trees.

"Now," she said, "you must go into that castle, and let the _Trolls_
whip you each one night for each of us. If you can bear that, you'll
set us free."

Well, the lad said he was ready to try.

"When you go in," the _Princess_ went on to say, "you'll see two lions
standing at the gate; but if you'll only go right in the middle
between them they'll do you no harm. Then go straight on into a little
dark room, and make your bed. Then the _Troll_ will come to whip you;
but if you take the flask which hangs on the wall, and rub yourself
with the ointment that's in it, wherever his lash falls, you'll be as
sound as ever. Then grasp the sword that hangs by the side of the
flask and strike the _Troll_ dead."

Yes, he did as the _Princess_ told him; he passed in the midst between
the lions, as if he hadn't seen them, and went straight into the
little room, and there he lay down to sleep. The first night there
came a _Troll_ with three heads and three rods, and whipped the lad
soundly; but he stood it till the _Troll_ was done; then he took the
flask and rubbed himself, and grasped the sword and slew the _Troll_.

So, when he went out next morning, the _Princesses_ stood out of the
earth up to their waists.

The next night 'twas the same story over again, only this time the
_Troll_ had six heads and six rods, and he whipped him far worse than
the first; but when he went out next morning, the _Princesses_ stood
out of the earth as far as the knee.

The third night there came a _Troll_ that had nine heads and nine
rods, and he whipped and flogged the lad so long that he fainted away;
then the _Troll_ took him up and dashed him against the wall; but the
shock brought down the flask, which fell on the lad, burst, and
spilled the ointment all over him, and so he became as strong and
sound as ever again. Then he wasn't slow; he grasped the sword and
slew the _Troll_; and next morning when he went out of the castle the
_Princesses_ stood before him with all their bodies out of the earth.
So he took the youngest for his _Queen_, and lived well and happily
with her for some time.

At last he began to long to go home for a little to see his parents.
His