"But the lad had more mind to go to Mother Roundabout and woo her daughter. Well, the goody thought that a very fine thing, for now he had good clothes on his back, and he was not such a bad looking fellow either. So she made him smart and fitted him out as well as she could, and he took out his new shoes and brushed them till they were as bright as glass, and when he had done that off he went.
"But all happened just as it did before. When he got out of doors the sun shone warm and bright, but it had rained over night, so that it was soft and miry, and all the bog-holes were full of water. The lad took the short cut to Mother Roundabout, and he sang and sprang as he was ever wont. Now he took another way than the one he went before, but just as he leaped and jumped he got upon the bridge over the moor again, and from it he had to jump over a bog-hole on to a tuft that he might not dirty his shoes. But plump it went, and down it went under him, and there was no stopping till he found himself in a nasty, deep dark hole. At first he could see nothing, but when he had been there a while he got a glimpse of a rat with a bunch of keys at the tip of her tail, who came wiggle-waggle up to him.
"'What, you here, my boy?' said the rat. 'That was nice of you to wish to see me so soon again. You are very eager, that I can see; but you really must wait a while, for there is still something wanting to my dower, but the next time you come it shall be all right.'
"When she had said this she set before him all kinds of scraps and bits in eggshells, such as rats eat and like; but the lad thought it all looked like meat that had been already eaten once, and he wasn't hungry, he said; and all the time he thought, 'If I could only once get above ground, well out of this hole.' But he said nothing out loud.
"So after a while the rat said,
"I dare say now you would be glad to get home again; but I'll hasten on the wedding as fast as ever I can. And now you must take with you this thread of wool, and when you come above ground you must not look round, but go straight home, and all the way you must mind and say nothing than
'Short before, and long back,
Short before, and long back;'
and as she said that she gave him a thread of wool into his hand.
"'Heaven be praised!' said the lad, 'that I got away. Thither I'll never go again if I can help it;' and so he sang and jumped as he was wont. As for the rat-hole he thought no more about it, but as he had got his tongue into tune and he sang,
'Short before, and long back,
Short before, and long back;'