HANS ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
he who dwells in old Dofrefield, and has so many castles of freestone among these rocky fastnesses, besides a gold-mine, which is a capital thing, let me tell you, he is coming down here with his two boys, who are both to choose themselves a bride. Such an honest, straightforward, true old Norseman is this mountain chief! so merry and jovial! he and I are old comrades; he came down here years ago to fetch his wife;
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THE MER-KING MUST BE INVITED FIRST
she is dead now; she was the daughter of the Rock-King at Moen. Oh, how I long to see the old Norseman again! His sons, they say, are rough unmannerly cubs, but perhaps report may have done them injustice, and at any rate they are sure to improve in a year or two, when they have sown their wild oats. Let me see how you will polish them up!'
'And how soon are they to be here?' inquired his youngest daughter again.
'That depends on wind and weather!' returned the Elfin- 124
