"'Such a scoundrel should be first hanged on a gallows and then his body should be burnt quick.'
"So he was taken at his word and suffered the doom that he uttered over himself, and the shopboy was wedded to the king's daughter, and lived both long and luckily.
"After that I was no longer with them, and I don't know how they fared; but this I know, that he who last told this Tale is alive this very day, and he is Ole Olsen, of Hitli, in Roldale."
When _The Shopboy and his Cheese_ was over, Anders, who ordered about his cousins like a Turk, called on Christina for _Peik_; but nothing could get the story out of her. There was something in it she did not like. It was not a girl's story. He had better tell it himself.
"Well, I will," said Anders; "I'm sure there's no harm in it; but judge for yourselves."
"Once on a time there was a man, and he had a wife; they had a son and a daughter who were twins, and they were so like, no one could tell the one from the other by anything else than their clothing. The boy they called Peik. He was of little good while his father and mother lived, for he had no mood to do aught else than to befool folk, and he was so full of tricks and pranks that no one could be at peace for him; but when they were dead it got worse and worse, he wouldn't turn his hand to anything; all he would do was to squander what they left behind them, and as for his neighbours he fell out with all of them. His sister toiled and moiled all she could, but it helped little; so at last she said to him how silly this was that he would do naught for her house, and ended by asking him,
"'What shall we have to live on when you have wasted everything?'
"'Oh, I'll go out and befool somebody,' said Peik.
"'Yes, Peik, I'll be bound you'll do that soon enough,' said his sister.
"So at last they had nothing more, for there was an end of everything; and Peik trotted off, and walked and walked till he came to the king's grange. There stood the King in the porch, and as soon as he set eyes on the lad, he said,--
"'Oh, I was going out to see if I could befool anybody,' said Peik.
"'Can't you befool me, now?' said the King.
"'No, I'm sure I can't,' said Peik, 'for I've forgotten my fooling rods at home.'