Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 03 (41 page)

Now on this particular day, it so happened that the Queen lost her
favourite ring, and suspicion fell on the confidential servant who
had access to all parts of the palace. The King sent for him, and
threatened him angrily, saying that if he had not found the thief
by the next day, he should himself be taken up and tried.

It was useless to assert his innocence; he was dismissed without
ceremony. In his agitation and distress, he went down to the yard
to think over what he could do in this trouble. Here were a number
of ducks resting near a little stream, and pluming, themselves
with their bills, whilst they kept up an animated conversation
amongst themselves. The servant stood still listening to them.
They were talking of where they had been waddling about all the
morning, and of the good food they had found, but one of them
remarked rather sadly, 'There's something lying very heavy on my
stomach, for in my haste I've swallowed a ring, which was lying
just under the Queen's window.'

No sooner did the servant hear this than he seized the duck by the
neck, carried it off to the kitchen, and said to the cook,
'Suppose you kill this duck; you see she's nice and fat.'

'Yes, indeed,' said the cook, weighing the duck in his hand, 'she
certainly has spared no pains to stuff herself well, and must have
been waiting for the spit for some time.' So he chopped off her
head, and when she was opened there was the Queen's ring in her
stomach.

It was easy enough now for the servant to prove his innocence, and
the King, feeling he had done him an injustice, and anxious to
make some amends, desired him to ask any favour he chose, and
promised to give him the highest post at Court he could wish for.

The servant, however, declined everything, and only begged for a
horse and some money to enable him to travel, as he was anxious to
see something of the world.

When his request was granted, he set off on his journey, and in
the course of it he one day came to a large pond, on the edge of
which he noticed three fishes which had got entangled in the reeds
and were gasping for water. Though fish are generally supposed to
be quite mute, he heard them grieving aloud at the prospect of
dying in this wretched manner. Having a very kind heart he
dismounted and soon set the prisoners free, and in the water once
more. They flapped with joy, and stretching up their heads cried
to him: 'We will remember, and reward you for saving us.'

He rode further, and after a while he thought he heard a voice in
the sand under his feet. He paused to listen, and heard the King
of the Ants complaining: 'If only men with their awkward beasts
would keep clear of us! That stupid horse is crushing my people
mercilessly to death with his great hoofs.' The servant at once
turned into a side path, and the Ant-King called after him, 'We'll
remember and reward you.'

The road next led through a wood, where he saw a father and a
mother raven standing by their nest and throwing out their young:
'Away with you, you young rascals!' they cried, 'we can't feed you
any longer. You are quite big enough to support yourselves now.'
The poor little birds lay on the ground flapping and beating their
wings, and shrieked, 'We poor helpless children, feed ourselves
indeed! Why, we can't even fly yet; what can we do but die of
hunger?' Then the kind youth dismounted, drew his sword, and
killing his horse left it there as food for the young ravens. They
hopped up, satisfied their hunger, and piped: 'We'll remember, and
reward you!'

He was now obliged to trust to his own legs, and after walking a
long way he reached a big town. Here he found a great crowd and
much commotion in the streets, and a herald rode about announcing,
'The King's daughter seeks a husband, but whoever would woo her
must first execute a difficult task, and if he does not succeed he
must be content to forfeit his life.' Many had risked their lives,
but in vain. When the youth saw the King's daughter, he was so
dazzled by her beauty, that he forgot all idea of danger, and went
to the King to announce himself a suitor.

On this he was led out to a large lake, and a gold ring was thrown
into it before his eyes. The King desired him to dive after it,
adding, 'If you return without it you will be thrown back into the
lake time after time, till you are drowned in its depths.'

Everyone felt sorry for the handsome young fellow and left him
alone on the shore. There he stood thinking and wondering what he
could do, when all of a sudden he saw three fishes swimming along,
and recognised them as the very same whose lives he had saved. The
middle fish held a mussel in its mouth, which it laid at the young
man's feet, and when he picked it up and opened it, there was the
golden ring inside.

Full of delight he brought it to the King's daughter, expecting to
receive his promised reward. The haughty Princess, however, on
hearing that he was not her equal by birth despised him, and
exacted the fulfilment of a second task.

She went into the garden, and with her own hands she strewed ten
sacks full of millet all over the grass. 'He must pick all that up
to-morrow morning before sunrise,' she said; 'not a grain must be
lost.'

The youth sat down in the garden and wondered how it would be
possible for him to accomplish such a task, but he could think of
no expedient, and sat there sadly expecting to meet his death at
daybreak.

But when the first rays of the rising sun fell on the garden, he
saw the ten sacks all completely filled, standing there in a row,
and not a single grain missing. The Ant-King, with his thousands
and thousands of followers, had come during the night, and the
grateful creatures had industriously gathered all the millet
together and put it in the sacks.

The King's daughter came down to the garden herself, and saw to
her amazement that her suitor had accomplished the task she had
given him. But even now she could not bend her proud heart, and
she said, 'Though he has executed these two tasks, yet he shall
not be my husband till he brings me an apple from the tree of
life.'

The young man did not even know where the tree of life grew, but
he set off, determined to walk as far as his legs would carry him,
though he had no hope of ever finding it.

After journeying through three different kingdoms he reached a
wood one night, and lying down under a tree prepared to go to
sleep there. Suddenly he heard a sound in the boughs, and a golden
apple fell right into his hand. At the same moment three ravens
flew down to him, perched on his knee and said, 'We are the three
young ravens whom you saved from starvation. When we grew up and
heard you were searching for the golden apple, we flew far away
over the seas to the end of the world, where the tree of life
grows, and fetched the golden apple for you.'

Full of joy the young man started on his way back and brought the
golden apple to the lovely Princess, whose objections were now
entirely silenced. They divided the apple of life and ate it
together, and her heart grew full of love for him, so they lived
together to a great age in undisturbed happiness.

Grimm.

Once upon a time there lived an exceedingly proud Princess. If any
suitor for her hand ventured to present himself, she would give
him some riddle or conundrum to guess, and if he failed to do so,
he was hunted out of the town with scorn and derision. She gave
out publicly that all comers were welcome to try their skill, and
that whoever could solve her riddle should be her husband.

Now it happened that three tailors had met together, and the two
elder thought, that after having successfully put in so many fine
and strong stitches with never a wrong one amongst them, they were
certain to do the right thing here too. The third tailor was a
lazy young scamp who did not even know his own trade properly, but
who thought that surely luck would stand by him now, just for
once, for, if not, what
was
to become of him?

The two others said to him, 'You just stay at home, you'll never
get on much with your small allowance of brains.' But the little
tailor was not to be daunted, and said he had set his mind on it
and meant to shift for himself, so off he started as though the
whole world belonged to him.

The three tailors arrived at Court, where they had themselves duly
presented to the Princess, and begged she would propound her
riddles, 'for,' said they, 'here were the right men at last, with
wits so sharp and so fine you might almost thread a needle with
them.'

Then said the Princess, 'I have on my head two different kinds of
hair. Of what colours are they?'

'If that's all,' said the first tailor, 'they are most likely
black and white, like the kind of cloth we call pepper-and-salt.'

'Wrong,' said the Princess.

'Then,' said the second tailor, 'if they are not black and white,
no doubt they are red and brown, like my father's Sunday coat.'

'Wrong again,' said the Princess; 'now let the third speak. I see
he thinks he knows all about it.'

Then the young tailor stepped boldly to the front and said, 'The
Princess has one silver and one golden hair on her head, and those
are the two colours.'

When the Princess heard this she turned quite pale, and almost
fainted away with fear, for the little tailor had hit the mark,
and she had firmly believed that not a soul could guess it. When
she had recovered herself she said, 'Don't fancy you have won me
yet, there is something else you must do first. Below in the
stable is a bear with whom you must spend the night, and if when I
get up in the morning I find you still alive you shall marry me.'

She quite expected to rid herself of the tailor in this way, for
the bear had never left anyone alive who had once come within
reach of his claws. The tailor, however, had no notion of being
scared, but said cheerily, 'Bravely dared is half won.'

When evening came on he was taken to the stable. The bear tried to
get at him at once and to give him a warm welcome with his great
paws. 'Gently, gently,' said the tailor, 'I'll soon teach you to
be quiet,' and he coolly drew a handful of walnuts from his pocket
and began cracking and eating them as though he had not a care or
anxiety in the world. When the bear saw this he began to long for
some nuts himself. The tailor dived into his pocket and gave him a
handful, but they were pebbles, not nuts. The bear thrust them
into his mouth, but try as he might he could not manage to crack
them. 'Dear me,' thought he, 'what a stupid fool I must be—can't
even crack a nut,' and he said to the tailor, 'I say, crack my
nuts for me, will you?'

'You're a nice sort of fellow,' said the tailor; 'the idea of
having those great jaws and not being able even to crack a
walnut!' So he took the stone, quickly changed it for a nut, and
crack! it split open in a moment.

'Let me try again,' said the bear; 'when I see the thing done it
looks so easy I fancy I
must
be able to manage it myself.'

So the tailor gave him some more pebbles, and the bear bit and
gnawed away as hard as he could, but I need hardly say that he did
not succeed in cracking one of them.

Presently the tailor took out a little fiddle and began playing on
it. When the bear heard the music he could not help dancing, and
after he had danced some time he was so pleased that he said to
the tailor, 'I say, is fiddling difficult?' 'Mere child's play,'
replied the tailor; 'look here! you press the strings with the
fingers of the left hand, and with the right, you draw the bow
across them, so—then it goes as easily as possible, up and down,
tra la la la la—'

'Oh,' cried the bear, 'I do wish I could play like that, then I
could dance whenever the fancy took me. What do you think? Would
you give me some lessons?'

'With all my heart,' said the tailor, 'if you are sharp about it.
But just let me look at your paws. Dear me, your nails are
terribly long; I must really cut them first.' Then he fetched a
pair of stocks, and the bear laid his paws on them, and the tailor
screwed them up tight. 'Now just wait whilst I fetch my scissors,'
said he, and left the bear growling away to his heart's content,
whilst he lay down in a corner and fell fast asleep.

When the Princess heard the bear growling so loud that night, she
made sure he was roaring with delight as he worried the tailor.

Next morning she rose feeling quite cheerful and free from care,
but when she looked across towards the stables, there stood the
tailor in front of the door looking as fresh and lively as a fish
in the water.

After this it was impossible to break the promise she had made so
publicly, so the King ordered out the state coach to take her and
the tailor to church to be married.

As they were starting, the two bad-hearted other tailors, who were
envious of the younger one's happiness, went to the stable and
unscrewed the bear. Off he tore after the carriage, foaming with
rage. The Princess heard his puffing and roaring, and growing
frightened she cried: 'Oh dear! the bear is after us and will
certainly catch us up!' The tailor remained quite unmoved. He
quietly stood on his head, stuck his legs out at the carriage
window and called out to the bear, 'Do you see my stocks? If you
don't go home this minute I'll screw you tight into them.'

When the bear saw and heard this he turned right round and ran off
as fast as his legs would carry him. The tailor drove on
unmolested to church, where he and the Princess were married, and
he lived with her many years as happy and merry as a lark. Whoever
does not believe this story must pay a dollar.

Grimm.

A powerful king had, among many other treasures, a wonderful tree
in his garden, which bore every year beautiful golden apples. But
the King was never able to enjoy his treasure, for he might watch
and guard them as he liked, as soon as they began to get ripe they
were always stolen. At last, in despair, he sent for his three
sons, and said to the two eldest, 'Get yourselves ready for a
journey. Take gold and silver with you, and a large retinue of
servants, as beseems two noble princes, and go through the world
till you find out who it is that steals my golden apples, and, if
possible, bring the thief to me that I may punish him as he
deserves.' His sons were delighted at this proposal, for they had
long wished to see something of the world, so they got ready for
their journey with all haste, bade their father farewell, and left
the town.