as rats are wont to eat, and set them before him, and said—
"Now, you must sit down and eat; I am sure you must be both tired and hungry."
But the lad thought he had no liking for such food.
"If I were only well away from this, above ground again," he thought to himself, but he said nothing out loud.
"Now, I dare say you'd be glad to go home again," said the rat. "I know your heart is set on this wedding, and I'll make all the haste I can; and you must take with you this linen thread, and when you get up above you must not look round, but go straight home, and on the way you must mind and say nothing but
'Short before, and long back,
Short before, and long back;'"
and as she said this, she put the linen thread into his hand.
"Heaven be praised!" said the lad, when he got above ground. "Thither I'll never come again, if I can help it."
But he still had the thread in his hand, and he sprang and sang as he was wont; but even though he thought no more of the rat-hole, he had got his tongue into the tune, and so he sang,
"Short before, and long back,
Short before, and long back."
So when he got back home into the porch he turned round, and there lay many many hundred ells of the
