“But what errand can you have in coming hither?” she went on, “for no Christian folk have been here these hundred years and more.”
Well, Halvor told her all about himself, and how he wanted to get to SORIA MORIA CASTLE, and asked if she knew the way thither.
“No”, said the old wife, “that I don’t, but see now, here comes the Moon, I’ll ask her, she’ll know all about it, for doesn’t she shine on everything?”
So when the Moon stood clear and bright over the tree-tops, the old wife went out.
“THOU MOON, THOU MOON”, she screamed, “canst thou tell me the way to SORIA MORIA CASTLE?”
“No”, said the Moon, “that I can’t, for the last time I shone there a cloud stood before me.”
“Wait a bit still”, said the old wife to Halvor, “by and bye comes the West Wind; he’s sure to know it, for he puffs and blows round every corner.”
“Nay, nay”, said the old wife when she went out again, “you don’t mean to say you’ve got a horse too; just turn the poor beastie loose in our ‘toun’, and don’t let him stand there and starve to death at the door.”
Then she ran on:
“But won’t you swop him away to me?—we’ve got an old pair of boots here, with which you can take twenty miles at each stride; those you shall have for your horse, and so you’ll get all the sooner to SORIA MORIA CASTLE.”