The Seven Fathers in the House.

110 was a pair of big eyes. " Good evening, father ; can I get lodgings here to-night ? " said the traveller. "I am not the father in the house ; but speak to my father, who Hes in the cradle yonder, said the man with the big eyes. Yes, the traveller went to the cradle ; there was a very old man lying, so shrivelled up, that he was not larger than a baby, and one could not have told that there was life in him if it had not been for a sound in his throat now and then. " Good evening, father ; can I get lodgings here to-night ? " said the man. It took some time before he got an answer, and still longer before he had finished it ; he said, like the others, that he was not the father in the house ; " But speak to myfather; heis hanging up in the horn against the wall there." The traveller stared round the walls, and at last he caught sight of the horn ; but when he looked for him who hung in it, there was scarcely anything to be seen but a lump of white ashes, which had the appearance of a man's face. Then he was so frightened, that he cried aloud : " Good evening, father ; will you give me lodgings here to-night ? " There was a sound like a little tom tit's chirping, but it was no more than he was just able to understand that it meant, " Yes, my child." And now a table came in which was covered with the costliest dishes, with ale and brandy ; and when he had eaten and drunk, in came a good bed with reindeer skins, and the traveller was very glad indeed that he at last had found the right father

in the house.