That is a fair bargain, is it not?"
"Very good," said the troll. "I am perfectly well satisfied. And this
year I would like whatever grows above the ground."
The farmer chuckled to himself. That satisfied him, too, for he was
planting potatoes. But when they had sprouted and grown, up through
the hill came the troll with a little scythe over his shoulder and cut
all the potato tops, taking them home with him. A fine harvest he
thought he had gathered.
The next season it was the troll's turn to have what grew below
ground, so the farmer sowed the hill with corn. When the corn was ripe
the troll did not appear at all. He was down under the hill busily
cutting the roots of the corn, well content with this share of the
harvest. So the farmer was crafty in his planting. The next season it
was carrots, and the next, beans. The troll gathered his carrot tops
and his bean roots, and laid them away carefully for the winter.
Which goes to show how easily you can satisfy a troll, but what a poor
farmer he is.
SCHOOL
A PURITAN SCHOOL-DAY
Peregrine fastened his long black cloak, and Patience smoothed her
white apron and tied the strings of her close-fitting bonnet beneath
her dimpled chin. The brother and sister crossed the threshold of the
log house which was their home in old Plymouth, almost three hundred
years ago, and started to walk across the corn fields and through a
patch of woodland, lying between their house and the next cabin.
Pages:
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126