In days past a coal burner named Nils lived on a point that shoots out into the northwest corner of a certain lake. His little garden patch was left to a servant boy to care for, while he himself lived always in the forest, chopping coal-wood during the summer and burning it in the winter. But no matter how hard he toiled, he did not make substantial money.
      One day he was constructing a stack of wood for burning by a lake, when a strange woman came to him from the other side of the lake and asked him if he needed help in his work.
      "Yes, it would be good to have some assistance," answered Nils. The woman began to carry logs and wood much faster than Nils could draw with his horse. By noon the material was on the ground for a new stack. When evening came she asked Nils what he thought of her day's work, and if she might come again next day.
      The coal burner could not well say no, so she returned the following day, and daily after that. When the stack was burned, she assisted him with the drawing, and never before had Nils had so much nor so good coal as that time.
      Thus the woman remained with him in the forest three years. She became the mother of three children, but this did not bother the coal burner, for she took care of them so that he had no trouble from them.
      When the fourth year had been entered on she began to be more presuming, and demanded that he take her home with him and make her his wife. Nils said he would think the matter over. He took a long walk and reflected whether he had not made a misstep, and if it might not be a troll woman who had so willingly lent him her company and help.
      Involved in these and similar thoughts, he forgot an agreement he had made with the forest woman when she first entered his service, that he would always strike three times with an axe against an old pine tree near the coal kiln when he came up to it. On he went, and suddenly he saw is stack in bright flames, and around it stood the mother and her three children drawing the coal. They drew and slacked so that fire, smoke and sparks filled the air high toward the sky. But instead of using pine branches or the slackening, they had bushy tails to beat the fire with after dipping them in the snow.
      Nils knew nothing better to do than to creep back to the pine he had forgotten, and strike it three times with his axe. Then he went forward to the stack where everything was as he was used to see it. The stack burned steadily and well, and the woman went about her duties as usual.
      When the woman saw Nils again, she again said how much she wanted to go home with him and become his wife.
      "The matter shall be settled now," said Nils and left them there for a little while. He went to the east shores of a lake, where there lived a wise old man, and explained his dilemma. The old man advised him to go home and hitch his horse to the coal cart, but harness it so that no loops were in the reins or harness. Then he should ride over the ice on the back of the horse; turn at the coal-kiln without pausing; shout to the troll woman and children to get into the cart; and drive briskly to the ice again.
      The coal burner followed the instructions. He harnessed his horse and saw to it carefully that there was no loop on the reins or harness, rode over the ice, up into the woods to the kiln and called to the woman and her children to jump in, at the same time heading for the ice and putting his horse to the best possible speed.
      When he reached the middle of the lake, a large pack of wolves came running toward him from the wilderness. He let slip the harness from the shafts, so that the cart and its contents were left standing on the slippery ice, and rode as fast as the horse could carry him straight to the other shore.
      When the troll saw the wolves, she began to call and beg. "Come back! come back!" she shrieked. "Do it for your youngest daughter, at least!"
      But Nils hurried on toward the shore. Then he heard her troll relatives calling one to the other, "Brother, sister, and cousin wild, catch hold of the loops and pull!"
      "He has no loop, "came a reply from the brother.
      "Catch him on the northern plain, then."
      "He does not ride in that direction," said the sister.
      And Nils did not go that way, but over fields, stones and roads straight to his home. He had barely arrived when the cousin fired a shot that tore away the corner of the stable and killed his horse on the spot.
      Nils, himself fell ill shortly after, and was confined to bed for many weeks. "When he recovered his health he sold his cabin in the forest, and cultivated the few acres around his cottage till the end of his days.