The lad ran into the kitchen.
“Look here, lasses,” he said; “you must go upstairs and dress up the bay mare as bride. I expect the master wants to give the guests a laugh.”
The women dressed the bay mare in everything that was there, and then the lad went and told his master that now she was ready dressed, with wreath and crown and all.
“Very well, bring her down!” said the squire. “I will receive her myself at the door,” said he.
There was a terrible clatter on the stairs; for that bride, you know, had no silken shoes on.
When the door was opened and the squire’s bride entered the parlor you can imagine there was a good deal of tittering and grinning.
And as for the squire you may he sure line had had enough of that bride, and they say he never went courting again.
THE DOLL IN THE GRASS
By P. C. Asbjörnsen
Once upon a time there was a king who had twelve sons. When they were grown up he told them they must go out into the world and find themselves wives, who must all be able to spin and weave and make a shirt in one day, else he would not have them for daughters-in-law. He gave each of his sons a horse and a new suit of armor, and so they set out in the world to look for wives.