He then struck the ground again till the hills
and rocks rattled and shook, and sent the enemy flying in the air like
chaff. This finished the war.
When he came home again, and asked for more work, the king was taken
quite aback, for he thought he should have got rid of him in the war. He
knew of nothing else but to send him on a message to the devil.
"You had better go to the devil and ask him for my ground-rent," he
said. The youngster took his bag on his back, and started at once. He
was not long in getting there, but the devil was gone to court, and
there was no one at home but his mother, and she said that she had never
heard talk of any ground-rent. He had better call again another time.
"Yes, call again to-morrow is always the cry," he said; but he was not
going to be made a fool of, he told her. He was there, and there he
would remain till he got the ground-rent. He had plenty of time to wait.
But when he had finished all the food in his bag, the time hung heavy on
his hands, and then he asked the old lady for the ground-rent again.
She had better pay it now, he said.
"No, she was going to do nothing of the sort," she said. Her words were
as firm as the old fir tree just outside the gates, which was so big
that fifteen men could scarcely span it.
But the youngster climbed right up in the top of it and twisted and
turned it as if it was a willow, and then he asked her if she was going
to pay the ground-rent now.
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