`Could I be he?' said Halvor.

`I should know him well enough,' said the old woman rising.
`Our Halvor was so idle and slothful that he never did anything at
all, and he was so ragged that one hole ran into another all over
his clothes. Such a fellow as he was could never turn into such a
man as you are, sir.'

In a short time the old woman had to go to the fireplace to stir
the fire, and when the blaze lit up Halvor, as it used to do when he
was at home raking up the ashes, she knew him again.

`Good Heavens! is that you, Halvor?' said she, and such great
gladness fell on the old parents that there were no bounds to it. And
now he had to relate everything that had befallen him, and the old
woman was so delighted with him that she would take him up to
the farm at once to show him to the girls who had formerly looked
down on him so. She went there first, and Halvor followed her.
When she got there she told them how Halvor had come home
again, and now they should just see how magnificent he was. `He
looks like a prince,' she said.

`We shall see that he is just the same ragamuffin that he was
before,' said the girls, tossing their heads.

At that same moment Halvor entered, and the girls were so
astonished that they left their kirtles lying in the chimney corner,
and ran away in nothing but their petticoats. When they came
in again they were so shamefaced that they hardly dared to look