"But the lad said it was the right down earnest, and so he took a birch cudgel and drove his father up to the gate of the palace, and there he came hobbling right up to the king with his eyes full of tears.
"'Now, now!' said the king, 'what's the matter my man. If you have suffered wrong, I will see you righted.'
"No, it wasn't that, he said, but he had a son who had brought him great sorrow, for he could never make a man of him, and now he must say he had gone clean out of the little wit he had before, and then he went on,—
"'For now he has hunted me up to the palace gate with a big birch cudgel, and forced me to ask for the king's daughter to wife.'
"'Hold your tongue, my man,' said the king; 'and as for this son of yours, go and ask him to come here indoors to me, and then we will see what to make of him.'
"So the lad ran in before the king till his rags fluttered behind him.
"'Am I to have your daughter?'
"'That was just what we were to talk about,' said the king; 'perhaps she mayn't suit you, and perhaps you mayn't suit her either.'
"'That was very likely!' said the lad.
"Now you must know there had just come a big ship from over the sea, and she could be seen from the palace windows.