and curtsey.

Halvor then inquired if he could stay there and have lodging for
the night. No, that he certainly could not. `We can give you no
such accommodation,' they said, `for we have none of the things that
are needful when a great lord like you is to be entertained. It will
be better for you to go up to the farm. It is not far off, you can see
the chimney-pots from here, and there they have plenty of everything.'

Halvor would not hear of that, he was absolutely determined to
stay where he was; but the old folks stuck to what they had said,
and told him that he was to go to the farm, where he could get both
meat and drink, whereas they themselves had not even a chair to
offer him.

`No,' said Halvor, `I will not go up there till early to-morrow
morning; let me stay here to-night. I can sit down on the
hearth.'

They could say nothing against that, so Halvor sat down on the
hearth, and began to rake about among the ashes just as he had
done before, when he lay there idling away his time.

They chattered much about many things, and told Halvor of
this and of that, and at last he asked them if they had never had
any child.

`Yes,' they said; they had had a boy who was called Halvor,
but they did not know where he had gone, and they could not even
say whether he were dead or alive.