“That is no great feat,” thought the youth to himself. But the princess was so merry and active, and so full of fun and nonsense, that he thought neither of the shears nor of himself, and while they were laughing and joking, she secretly robbed him of the shears without his noticing it. When he came to his room in the evening, and told what had occurred, and what the princess had said to him, and about the shears which she had given him to guard, his comrade asked: “And have you still the shears?”
The youth looked through all his pockets; but his shears were not there, and he was more than unhappy when he realized that he had lost them.
“Well, well, never mind. I will see whether I can get them back for you,” said his comrade, and went down into the stable. There stood an enormous goat which belonged to the princess, and could fly through the air more swiftly than he could walk on level ground. The comrade took the Three-Sisters Sword, gave him a blow between the horns, and asked: “At what time does the princess ride to meet her lover to-night?” The goat bleated, and said he did not dare tell; but when the comrade had given him another thump, he did say that the princess would come at eleven o’clock sharp. Then the comrade put on the Three-Sisters Hat, which made him invisible, and waited for the princess. When she came, she anointed the goat with a salve she carried in a great horn, and cried out: “Up, up! over gable and roof, over land and sea, over hill and dale, to my dearest, who waits for me in the hill!”
As the goat flew upward, the comrade swung himself up in back, and then they were off like the wind through the clouds: it was not a long journey. Suddenly they stood before a wall of rock, she knocked, and then they took their way into the interior of the hill, to the troll who was her dearest. “And now a new suitor has come who wants to win me, sweetheart,” said she. “He is young and handsome, but I will have none but you,” she went on, and made a great time over the troll. “I have set him a test, and here are the shears that he was to keep and guard. You shall keep them now!” Then both of them laughed as though the youth had already lost his head. “Yes, I will keep them, and take good care of them, and a kiss from you shall pledge the truth, when crows are cawing around the youth!” said the troll; and he laid the shears in an iron chest with three locks. But at the moment he was dropping the shears into the chest, the comrade caught them up. None could see him, for he was wearing the Three-Sisters Hat. So the troll carefully locked the empty chest, and put the key into a hollow double-tooth, where he kept other magic things. “The suitor could hardly find it there,” said he.
After midnight the princess set out for home. The comrade swung himself up in back again, and the trip home did not take long.
The following noon the youth was invited to dine at the king’s table. But this time the princess kept her nose in the air, and was so haughty and snappish that she hardly condescended to glance in the youth’s direction. But after they had eaten, she looked very solemn, and asked in the sweetest manner: “You probably still have the shears I gave you to take care of yesterday?”
“Yes, here they are,” said the youth; and he flung them on the table so that they rang. The princess could not have been more frightened had he thrown the shears in her face. But she tried to make the best of a bad bargain, and said in a sweet voice: “Since you have taken such good care of the shears, you will not find it hard to keep my ball of gold twine for me. I should like to have it back by to-morrow noon; but if you cannot give it to me then, you must die, according to the law.” The youth thought it would not be so very hard, and put the ball of gold twine in his pocket. Yet the princess once more began to toy and joke with him, so that he thought neither of himself nor of the ball of gold twine, and while they were in the midst of their merry play she stole the golden ball from him, and then dismissed him.
When he came up into his room, and told what she had said and done, his comrade asked: “And have you still the ball of gold twine?”
“Yes, indeed,” said the youth, and thrust his hand into the pocket in which he had placed it. But there was no ball in it, and he fell into such despair that he did not know what to do.
“Do not worry,” said his comrade. “I will see whether I cannot get it back for you.” He took his sword and his hat, and went to a smith and had him weld twelve extra pounds of iron to his sword. Then, when he entered the stable, he gave the goat such a blow between the horns with it that he staggered, and asked: “At what time does the princess ride to her dearest to-night?”