I would dig a grave for the maid of the hill, heigho!'"

He did not answer her, but stirred the soup in the pot and tasted it, and
hung a great piece of meat over the fire. Then he sat down, and only once
did he show anger as she mocked him, and that was when she thrust her
hand into his breast, took out the little stone image, and said:

"If a little stone god had a hundred hearts,
Would a little stone goddess trust in one?"

Then she made as if she would throw it into the fire, but he caught her
hand and crushed it, so that she cried out for pain and anger, and said:

"Brute of iron, go break the posts in the brigands' prison-house, but
leave a poor girl's wrist alone. If I had a hundred men--" she added,
mocking wildly again, and then, springing at him, put her two thumbs at
the corners of his eyes, and cried: "Stir a hand, and out they will
come--your eyes for my bones!"

He did not stir till her fury was gone. Then he made her sit down and eat
with him, and afterwards she said softly to him, and without a laugh:
"Why should the people say, 'Golgothar is our shame, for he has great
strength, and yet he does nothing but throw great stones for sport into
the sea'?"

He had the simple mind of a child, and he listened to her patiently, and
at last got up and began preparing for a journey, cleaning all his
weapons, and gathering them together. She understood him, and she said,
with a little laugh like music: "One strong man is better than a
hundred--a little key will open a great door easier than a hundred