It did not take him long
to finish that job, so he wanted to know what he should do next.
"You will have to get all the stones out of the field," said the farmer.
"I suppose you can't be ready before you have commenced?"
But the youngster emptied his pockets and threw all the stones in a
heap. Then the farmer saw that he had finished the work, and he thought
he ought to look well after one who was so strong. He must come in and
get something to eat, he said. The youngster thought so too, and he
alone ate what was prepared both for master and servants, and still he
was only half satisfied.
"He is the right sort of man for a labourer, but he is a terrible eater,
to be sure," thought the farmer. "A man like him would eat a poor farmer
out of house and home before anybody knew a word about it," he said. He
had no more work for him; it was best for him to go to the king's
palace.
The youngster set out for the palace, where he got a place at once.
There was plenty of food and plenty of work. He was to be errand boy,
and to help the girls to carry wood and water and do other odd jobs. So
he asked what he was to do first.
"You had better chop some wood in the mean time," they said. Yes, he
commenced to chop and cut wood till the splinters flew about him. It was
not long before he had chopped up everything in the place, both firewood
and timber, both rafters and beams, and when he was ready with it, he
came in and asked what he was to do now.
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