one chip of the oak's trunk flew off, two grew in its stead. The King
wished also to have a well dug which was to hold water for the whole
year. All his neighbors had wells, but he had none, and he thought that
a shame.

So the King said he would give to any one who could dig him such a well
as would hold water for the whole year round, both money and goods, but
no one could do it, for the King's palace lay high, high up on a hill,
and they could dig but a few inches before they would come upon rock.

But as the King had set his heart on having these two things done, he
had it given out in all the churches of his kingdom far and wide, that
he who could fell the big oak in the King's courtyard, and dig him a
well that would hold water the whole year round, should have the
Princess and half the kingdom. Well! you may easily know there was many
a man who came to try his luck; but all their hacking and hewing, and
all their digging and delving were useless. The oak got bigger and
stouter at every stroke, and the rock grew no softer either.

One day the three brothers thought they, too, would set off and try it.
Their father had not a word to say against it; for even if they did not
get the Princess and half the kingdom, it might happen they would get a
place somewhere with a good master and that was all he wanted. So when
the brothers asked his permission, he consented at once, and Peter, Paul
and Espen set forth.

Well, they had not gone far before they came to a fir wood where at one
side there rose a steep hill, and as they went along they heard
something hewing and hacking away up on the hill among the trees.