Once on a time there were three Billy-Goats, who were to go
     up to the hill-side to make themselves fat, and the name of
     all three was “Gruff.”

Energy or force appeals to the emotions in the words of the tiny Billy-Goat Gruff to the Troll:—­

     “Oh, no! pray don’t take me.  I’m too little, that I am,”
     said the Billy-Goat; “wait a bit till the second Billy-Goat
     Gruff comes, he’s much bigger.”

There is emotional harmony displayed in the second paragraph; the words used fit the ideas:—­

     On the way up was a bridge over a burn they had to cross;
     and under the bridge lived a great ugly Troll, with eyes as
     big as saucers, and a nose as long as a poker.

The quality of personality is best described, perhaps, by saying that the tale seems to have impersonality.  Any charm of the story-tellers of the ages has entered into the body of the tale, which has become an objective presentment of a reality that concentrates on itself and keeps personality out of sight.  The character of the tellers is shown however in the qualities of the tale.  The charm of the primitive story-tellers has given the tale inimitable morning-dew freshness.  This seems to result from a fine simplicity, a sprightly visualization, a quaint picturesqueness, a pleasing terseness, and an Anglo-Saxon vigor.

Sincerity is displayed in the words of the Troll and of the three Billy-Goats.  Note the sincerity of little Billy-Goat Gruff:—­

     “Oh! it is only I, the tiniest Billy-Goat Gruff; and I’m
     going up to the hillside to make myself fat,” said the
     Billy-Goat, with such a small voice.

The unity in this tale is unusually good.  The central idea which groups all the happenings in the tale is:  Three Billy-Goats are crossing a bridge to go up to the hillside to make themselves fat.  There are four characters, three Goats and the Troll.  All that happens in the tale contributes to the one effect of a bridge going trip, trap! as a Goat crossed it on his way up the hillside; of a Troll roaring:  “Who’s that tripping over my bridge?” of the explanation of the Billy-Goat; of the answer of the Troll, “Now I’m coming to gobble you up”; and of the Billy-Goat’s final petition.  Unity is emphasized by the repetition in the tale, as the three Billy-Goats successively cross the bridge and reply to the Troll.  The climax is the big Billy-Goat Gruff’s tramp across the bridge.

This tale is characterized by perfect mass, the paragraphs always end with words that deserve distinction, and the sentences have their strongest words at the points where the eye would most readily see them; as, “But just then up came the big Billy-Goat Gruff.”  The coherence is fine, and is secured largely by the cumulative plan in a threefold sense.  The relation of the parts is unmistakable.  The similarity and contrast evident in the episodes of the three Billy-Goats makes this relation very clearly defined.  To make doubly sure the end has been reached the tale concludes:—­