CHAPTER IX
In Which Sweet William Tells a Story
There was once a goose-girl named Kora, who used to herd her master’s geese in a certain field. Now at one end of this field there was a grassy mound, inside which lived a very rich and wicked troll, who came every day to his doorway to watch the goose-girl as she sat in the shadow of a hollow tree, knitting and singing, and minding her geese. “She is so cheerful and industrious,” said he to himself, “that doubtless she would make a very good wife.”
But one day when he stood at his threshold to look at her, he saw that she had let her knitting fall into her lap, and that instead of singing, she was weeping bitterly. Very cautiously he crept up behind her, and touched her gently on the arm. Kora started and screamed when she caught sight o
