Once fairly in the forest, Thumbling looked around to right and left; but the grass was so thick that he couldn't see anything, so he began to sing at the top of his voice,-- "Master Troll, Master Troll! I defy you to appear! I must have you, body and soul, Master Troll, Master Troll! Show yourself, for I AM HERE!" "AND I AM HERE!" cried the giant, with a terrible shout. "Wait a minute, and I will only make a mouthful of you!" "Don't be in a hurry, my good fellow," replied Thumbling, in a little squeaking voice, "I have a whole hour to give you." When the Troll came to the place where Thumbling was, he looked around on every side, very much astonished at not seeing anything. At last, lowering his eyes to the ground, he discovered what appeared to be a little child, sitting on a fallen tree, with a stout leather bag between his knees. "Is it you, pigmy, who woke me up from my nap?" growled the Troll, rolling his great red eyes. "I am the very one," replied Thumbling, "I have come to take you into my service." "He! he!" laughed the giant, who was as stupid as he was big, "that is a good joke indeed. But I am going to pitch you into that raven's nest I see up there, to teach you not to make a noise in my forest." "_Your_ forest!" laughed Thumbling. "It is as much mine as it is yours, and if you say a word more, I will cut it down in a quarter of an hour." "Ha! ha!" shouted the giant, "and I should like to see you begin, my brave fellow." Thumbling carefully placed the axe on the ground, and said, "Chop! chop!! chop!!!" And lo and behold! the axe begins to chop, hew, hack, now right, now left, and up and down, till the branches tumble on the Troll's head like hail in autumn. "Enough, enough!" said the Troll, who began to be alarmed. "Don't destroy my forest. But who the mischief are you?" "I am the famous sorcerer THUMBLING," answered our hero, in as gruff a voice as his little body was capable of; "and I have only to say a single word to chop your head off your shoulders. You don't know yet with whom you have to do." The giant hesitated, very much disturbed at what he saw. Meanwhile, Thumbling, who began to be hungry, opened his stout leather bag, and took out his bread and cheese. "What is that white stuff?" asked the Troll, who had never seen any cheese before. "That is a stone," answered Thumbling. He began to eat as eagerly as possible. "Do you eat stones?" asked the giant. "O yes," replied Thumbling, "that is my ordinary food, and that is the reason I am not so big as you, who eat oxen; but it is also the reason why, little as I am, I am ten times as strong as you are. Now take me to your house." The Troll was conquered; and, marching before Thumbling like a dog before a little child, he led him to his monstrous cabin.