Peter Christen Asbjørnsen

“ For you must know it was the same beggar-man who had got them all three; he had only changed his shape each time, that the lad might not know him again.
"I have always had such a longing to hear a fiddle go, and see folk so glad and merry that they couldn't help dancing," said the lad; "and so, if I may wish what I choose, I will wish myself such a fiddle, that everything that has life must dance to its tune." ”

“ And pray, how was it that you got to be such a fine gentleman?"
"Oh, that's tellings," said little Freddy.
"And are you full of fun, that you carry a fiddle about with you?" asked the sheriff.
"Yes, yes," said Freddy. "I have always had such a longing to get folk to dance; but the funniest thing of all is this gun, for it brings down almost anything that I aim at, however far it may be off. ”

“ But the sheriff he begged them, for God's sake, not to let him have leave to touch a string, else it was all over with them altogether; and if the lad got leave, he begged them to bind him to the birch that stood there.
So little Freddy was not slow in getting his fiddle to speak, and all that were there fell a-dancing at once, those who went on two legs, and those who went on four; both the dean and the parson, and the lawyer, and the bailiff, and the sheriff, masters and men, dogs and swine—they all danced and laughed and screeched at one another. Some danced till they lay for dead ”