THE ELF-HILL. 315

_ © Well,” said he, “I suppose I must tell it now. Two of my
daughters must hold themselves prepared to be married ; two will
certainly be married. The old gnome from Norway yonder, he
who lives in the Dovre mountains, and possesses many rock
castles of field stones, and a gold mine which is better than one
thinks, is coming with his two sons, who want each to select a
wife. The old gnome is a true old honest Norwegian veteran,
merry and straightforward. I know him from old days, when we
drank brotherhood with one another. He was down here to fetch
his wife: now she is dead,—she was a daughter of the King of
the Chalk-rocks of Moen. He took his wife upon chalk, as the
saying is. Oh, how I long to see the old Norwegian gnome!
The lads, they say, are rather rude, forward lads; but perhaps
they are belied, and they’ll be right enough when they grow
older. Let me see that you can teach them manners.”

“ And when will they come?” asked the daughters.

“That depends on wind and weather,” said the Elf King.
“They travel economically: they come when there’s a chance
by aship. I wanted them to go across Sweden, but the old one
would not incline to that wish. He does not advance with the
times, and I don’t like that.”

Then two Will-o’-the-wisps came hopping up, one quicker than
the other, and so one of them arrived first.

“They’re coming! they’re coming!” they cried.

“ Give me my crown, and let me stand in the moonshine,”
said the Elf King.

And the daughters lifted up their shawls and bowed down to
the earth.

There stood the old gnome of Dovre, with the crown of har:
dened ice and polished fir-cones ; moreover, he wore a bear-skin
and great warm boots. His sons, on the contrary, went bare-
necked, and with trousers without braces, for they were strong
men.

“Ts that an acclivity?’ asked the youngest of the lads; and
he pointed to the elf-hill. ‘‘ In Norway yonder we should call it
a hole.”

“Boys!” said the old man, “holes go down, mounds go up.
Have you no eyes in your heads ?”

The only thing they wondered at down here, they said, was that
they could understand the language without difficulty.

“ Don’t give yourselves airs,” said the old man. ‘ One would
think you were home nurtured.”

And then they went into the elf-hill, where the really grand
company were assembled, and that in such haste that one might
almost say they had been blown together. But for each it was
nicely and prettily arranged. The sea folks sat at table in great
washing-tubs: they said it was just as if they were at home. All
observed the ceremonies of the table except the two young