So one Sunday the White Bear came and said that they could now set out to see her father and mother, and they journeyed thither, she sitting on his back, and they went a long, long way, and it took a long, long time; but at last they came to a large white farmhouse, and her brothers and sisters were running about outside it, playing, and it was so pretty that it was a pleasure to look at it.

“Your parents dwell here now,” said the White Bear; “but do not forget what I said to you, or you will do much harm both to yourself and me.”

“No, indeed,” said she, “I shall never forget;” and as soon as she was at home the White Bear turned round and went back again.

There were such rejoicings when she went in to her parents that it seemed as if they would never come to an end.  Everyone thought that he could never be sufficiently grateful to her for all she had done for them all.  Now they had everything that they wanted, and everything was as good as it could be.  They all asked her how she was getting on where she was.  All was well with her too, she said; and she had everything that she could want.  What other answers she gave I cannot say, but I am pretty sure that they did not learn much from her.  But in the afternoon, after they had dined at midday, all happened just as the White Bear had said.  Her mother wanted to talk with her alone in her own chamber.  But she remembered what the White Bear had said, and would on no account go.  “What we have to say can be said at any time,” she answered.  But somehow or other her mother at last persuaded her, and she was forced to tell the whole story.  So she told how every night a man came and lay down beside her when the lights were all put out, and how she never saw him, because he always went away before it grew light in the morning, and how she continually went about in sadness, thinking how happy she would be if she could but see him, and how all day long she had to go about alone, and it was so dull and solitary.  “Oh!” cried the mother, in horror, “you are very likely sleeping with a troll!  But I will teach you a way to see him.  You shall have a bit of one of my candles, which you can take away with you hidden in your breast.  Look at him with that when he is asleep, but take care not to let any tallow drop upon him.”

So she took the candle, and hid it in her breast, and when evening drew near the White Bear came to fetch her away.  When they had gone some distance on their way, the White Bear asked her if everything had not happened just as he had foretold, and she could not but own that it had.  “Then, if you have done what your mother wished,” said he, “you have brought great misery on both of us.”  “No,” she said, “I have not done anything at all.”  So when she had reached home and had gone to bed it was just the same as it had been before, and a man came and lay down beside her, and late at night, when she could hear that he was sleeping, she got up and kindled a