"'If I were only well away from this, above ground again,' he thought to himself, but he said nothing out loud.
"'Now, I daresay, you'ld be glad to go home again,' said the rat. 'I know your heart is set on this wedding, and I'll make all the haste I can, and you must take with you this linen thread, and when you get up above you must not look round, but go straight home, and on the way you must mind and say nothing but
'Short before, and long back,
Short before, and long back;'
and as she said this she put the linen thread into his hand.
"'Heaven be praised!' said the lad, when he got above ground. 'Thither I'll never come again, if I can help it.'
"But he still had the thread in his hand, and he sprang and sang as he was wont; but even though he thought no more of the rat-hole, he had got his tongue into the tune, and so he sang,
'Short before, and long back,
Short before, and long back;'
"So when he got back home into the porch he turned round, and there lay many many hundred ells of the whitest linen, so fine that the handiest weaving girl could not have woven it finer.
"'Mother! mother! come out,' he cried and roared. Out came the goody in a bustle, and asked what ever was the matter; but when she saw the linen woof, which stretched as far back as she could see and a bit beside, she couldn't believe her eyes, till the lad told her how it had all happened. And when she had heard it and tried the woof between her fingers, she got so glad that she too began to dance and sing.
"So she took the linen and cut it out, and sewed shirts out of it both for herself and her son, and the rest she took into the town and sold, and got money for it. And now they both lived well and happily a while; but when the money was all gone the goody had no more food in the house, and so she told her son he really must now begin to go to work, and live like the rest of the world, else there was nothing for it but starving for them both.