"Unless 'twas but this morning you came among us first,
You've heard how he knocked over tall Johan Knutson Kirst.
"How, in his famous barn-fight with Ola Stor-Johann,
He said, 'Bring down your porridge when we two fight again.'
"That fighting fellow, Bugge, a famous man was he:
His name was known all over fjord and fell and sea.
"'Now, choose the place, you tailor, where I shall knock you down,
And then I'll spit upon it, and there I'll lay your crown.'
"'Ah, only come so near, I may catch your scent, my man,
Your bragging hurts nobody; don't dream it ever can.'
"The first round was a poor one, and neither man could beat;
But both kept in their places, and steady on their feet.
"The second round, poor Bugge was beaten black and blue.
'Little Bugge, are you tired? It's going hard with you.'
"The third round, Bugge tumbled, and bleeding there he lay.
'Now, Bugge, where's your bragging?' 'Bad luck to me to-day!'"[4]
More the boy did not sing; but there were two other stanzas which his mother was not likely to have taught him:—
"Have you seen a tree cast its shadow on yesterday's snow?
Have you seen how Nils does his smiles on the girls bestow?