The Giant and Johannes Blessom. 213 " ' I wish I could get there as well/ said Johannes. " ' Well, you can stand behind on my sledge,' said the stranger, 1 for I have a horse who does the mile in twelve strides/ " Johannes thanked him for the offer, went with him to the stable, and off they started. Johannes was only just able to stick on to the sledge, for away they went like the wind through the air. He could neither see earth nor sky. "At one place they stopped to rest. Johannes could not tell where it was, but just as they were starting again he saw a skull on a pole. When they had travelled some distance Johannes began to feel cold. •" Ugh ! I forgot one of my mittens where wc rested,' said he ;
- my fingers are freezing ! '
" ' You'll have to stand it, Johannes Blessom/ said the stranger, 'it isn't far to Vaage now. Where we rested was half-way ! ! " The stranger stopped just before they carae to the bridge over the Finne river to put Johannes down. r- " * You are not far from home, now,' said he, ' and you must promise me not to look behind you i f you hear any rumble or see any light around you.' "Johannes promised this and thanked him for the lift. The stranger proceeded on his way over the Finne bridge, and Johannes walked up the hill-side to his farm. But all of a sudden he heard a rumble in the giant's mountain, and the road in front of him was suddenly lighted up, —he thought he could have seen to pick up a needle. He forgot what he had promised, and turned his head to see what it was. The gate in the mountain was wide open and there came a light from it as from many thousand candles. Right in the middle of the gate he saw the giant himself, — it was the stranger he had been driving with. But from that day, Johannes Blessom's head was all on one side, and so it remained as long as he lived."
