When the hare perceived that the troll did not smell of anything like
dog he was content to let the troll question him. But he did not
understand the language of Elfland, so he lay still again and thought
while the troll talked.
And at last the troll wearied of getting no answer, so he leaped up and
shouted "Dogs!" and left the hare and scampered away merrily over the
buttercups, taking any direction that led away from Elfland. And though
the hare could not quite understand elvish language, yet there was a
vehemence in the tone in which the troll had shouted Dogs which caused
apprehension to enter the thoughts of the hare, so that very soon he
forsook his arrangement of grass, and lollopped away through the meadow
with one scornful look after the troll; but he did not go very fast,
going mostly on three legs, with one hind leg all ready to let down if
there should really be dogs. And soon he paused and sat up and put up
his ears, and looked across the buttercups and thought deeply. And
before the hare had ceased to ponder the troll's meaning the troll was
far out of sight and had forgotten what he had said.
And soon he saw the gables of a farm-house rise up beyond a hedge. They
seemed to look at him with little windows up under red tiles. "A haunt
of man," said the troll. And yet some elvish instinct seemed to tell him
that it was not here that Princess Lirazel had come. Still, he went
nearer the farm and began to gaze at its poultry. But just at that
moment a dog saw him, one that had never seen a troll before, and it
uttered one canine cry of astonished indignation, and keeping all the
rest of its breath for the chase, sped after the troll.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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