"'Come along then to the King's Grange, and you shall have enough to live on. There's no good sitting here and starving in this cabin by yourself,' said the King.
"Yes! he was glad to do that; so the King took him with him, and had him taught everything, and treated him as his own daughter, and it was almost as if the King had his three daughters again, for Miss Peik sewed and stitched, and sung and played with the others, and was with them early and late.
"After a time a king's son came to look for a wife.
"'Yes! I have three daughters,' said the King; 'it rests with you which you will have?'
"So he got leave to go up to their bower to make friends with them, and the end was that he liked Miss Peik best, and threw a silk kerchief into her lap as a love token. So they set to work to get ready the bridal feast, and in a little while his kinsfolk came, and the King's men, and they all fell to feasting and drinking on the bridal eve; but as night was falling Miss Peik daren't stay longer, but ran away from the King's Grange, out into the wide world, and the bride was lost; but there was worse behind, for just then both the other princesses felt very queer, and all at once two little princes came travelling into the world, and folk had to break up and go home just as the fun and feasting were highest.
"The King got both wroth and sorrowful, and began to wonder if it wasn't Peik again that had a finger in this pie.
"So he mounted his horse and rode out, for he thought it dull work staying at home; but when he got out among the ploughed fields, there sat Peik on a stone playing on a Jews' harp.
"'What! are you sitting there, Peik?' said the King.
"'Here I sit, sure enough,' said Peik. 'Where else should I sit?"
"'Now you have cheated me foully, time after time,' said the King; 'but now you must come along home with me, and I'll kill you.'