‘What would be the use of that?’ said the others who were in the
kitchen; ‘you saw what happened last time.’
Kari would not give in, but went on begging for leave till she got it,
and then she ran up the stairs so that her wooden gown clattered again.
Out came the Prince, and when he saw that it was Kari, he snatched the
towel from her and flung it right in her eyes.
‘Be off at once, you ugly Troll,’ said he; ‘do you think that I will
have a towel that has been touched by your dirty fingers?’
After that the Prince went to church, and Kari also asked leave to go.
They all asked how she could want to go to church when she had nothing
to wear but that wooden gown, which was so black and hideous. But Kari
said she thought the priest was such a good man at preaching that she
got so much benefit from what he said, and at last she got leave.
She went to the rock and knocked, whereupon out came the man and gave
her a gown which was much more magnificent than the first. It was
embroidered with silver all over it, and it shone like the silver wood,
and he gave her also a most beautiful horse, with housings embroidered
with silver, and a bridle of silver too.
When the King’s daughter got to church all the people were standing
outside upon the hillside, and all of them wondered who on earth she
could be, and the Prince was on the alert in a moment, and came and
wanted to hold her horse while she alighted. But she jumped off and
said that there was no need for that, for the horse was so well broken
in that it stood still when she bade it and came when she called it. So
they all went into the church together, but there was scarcely any one
who listened to what the priest was saying, for they were all looking
far too much at her, and the Prince fell much more deeply in love with
her than he had been before.
When the sermon was over and she went out of the church, and was just
going to mount her horse, the Prince again came and asked her where she
came from.
‘I am from Towelland,’ said the King’s daughter, and as she spoke she
dropped her riding-whip, and while the Prince was stooping to pick it
up she said:
‘Darkness behind me, but light on my way,
That the Prince may not see where I’m going to-day!’
And she was gone again, neither could the Prince see what had become of
her. He went far and wide to inquire for that country from whence she
had said that she came, but there was no one who could tell him where
it lay, so he was forced to have patience once more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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