Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 08 (15 page)

'Though I was still deadly cold with terror I plucked up my courage
and said: "Get away from me, evil spirit; I do not desire your
treasures."

'At this the spectre grinned in my face and cried mockingly:

'"Simpleton! Do you scorn your good fortune? Well, then, remain a
ragamuffin all your days."

'He turned as if to go away from me, then came back again and
said: "Bethink yourself, bethink yourself, rogue. I will fill your
knapsack—I will fill your pouch."

'"Away from me, monster," I answered, "I will have nothing to do
with you."

'When the apparition saw that I gave no heed to him he ceased to
urge me, saying only: "Some day you will rue this," and looked at
me sadly. Then he cried: "Listen to what I say, and lay it well to
heart, it may be of use to you when you come to your senses. A
vast treasure of gold and precious stones lies in safety deep under
the earth. At twilight and at high noon it is hidden, but at midnight
it may be dug up. For seven hundred years have I watched over it,
but now my time has come; it is common property, let him find it
who can. So I thought to give it into your hand, having a kindness
for you because you feed your flock upon my mountain."

'Thereupon the spectre told me exactly where the treasure lay, and
how to find it. It might be only yesterday so well do I remember
every word he spoke.

'"Go towards the little mountains," said he, "and ask there for the
Black King's Valley, and when you come to a tiny brook follow the
stream till you reach the stone bridge beside the saw-mill. Do not
cross the bridge, but keep to your right along the bank till a high
rock stands before you. A bow-shot from that you will discover a
little hollow like a grave. When you find this hollow dig it out; but
it will be hard work, for the earth has been pressed down into it
with care. Still, work away till you find solid rock on all sides of
you, and soon you will come to a square slab of stone; force it out
of the wall, and you will stand at the entrance of the treasure house.
Into this opening you must crawl, holding a lamp in your mouth.
Keep your hands free lest you knock your nose against a stone, for
the way is steep and the stones sharp. If it bruises your knees never
mind; you are on the road to fortune. Do not rest till you reach a
wide stairway, down which you will go till you come out into a
spacious hall, in which there are three doors; two of them stand
open, the third is fastened with locks and bolts of iron. Do not go
through the door to the right lest you disturb the bones of the lords
of the treasure. Neither must you go through the door to the left, it
leads to the snake's chamber, where adders and serpents lodge; but
open the fast-closed door by means of the well-known spring-root,
which you must on no account forget to take with you, or all your
trouble will be for naught, for no crowbar or mortal tools will help
you. If you want to procure the root ask a wood-seller; it is a
common thing for hunters to need, and it is not hard to find. If the
door bursts open suddenly with great crackings and groanings do
not be afraid, the noise is caused by the power of the magic root,
and you will not be hurt. Now trim your lamp that it may not fail
you, for you will be nearly blinded by the flash and glitter of the
gold and precious stones on the walls and pillars of the vault; but
beware how you stretch out a hand towards the jewels! In the midst
of the cavern stands a copper chest, in that you will find gold and
silver, enough and to spare, and you may help yourself to your
heart's content. If you take as much as you can carry you will have
sufficient to last your lifetime, and you may return three times; but
woe betide you if you venture to come a fourth time. You would
have your trouble for your pains, and would be punished for your
greediness by falling down the stone steps and breaking your leg.
Do not neglect each time to heap back the loose earth which
concealed the entrance of the king's treasure chamber."

'As the apparition left off speaking my dog pricked up his ears and
began to bark. I heard the crack of a carter's whip and the noise of
wheels in the distance, and when I looked again the spectre had
disappeared.'

So ended the shepherd's tale; and the landlord who was listening
with the rest, said shrewdly:

'Tell us now, Father Martin, did you go to the mountain and find
what the spirit promised you; or is it a fable?'

'Nay, nay,' answered the graybeard. 'I cannot tell if the spectre lied,
for never a step did I go towards finding the hollow, for two
reasons:—one was that my neck was too precious for me to risk it in
such a snare as that; the other, that no one could ever tell me where
the spring-root was to be found.'

Then Blaize, another aged shepherd, lifted up his voice.

"Tis a pity, Father Martin, that your secret has grown old with you.
If you had told it forty years ago truly you would not long have
been lacking the spring-root. Even though you will never climb the
mountain now, I will tell you, for a joke, how it is to be found. The
easiest way to get it is by the help of a black woodpecker. Look, in
the spring, where she builds her nest in a hole in a tree, and when
the time comes for her brood to fly off block up the entrance to the
nest with a hard sod, and lurk in ambush behind the tree till the bird
returns to feed her nestlings. When she perceives that she cannot
get into her nest she will fly round the tree uttering cries of distress,
and then dart off towards the sun-setting. When you see her do
this, take a scarlet cloak, or if that be lacking to you, buy a few
yards of scarlet cloth, and hurry back to the tree before the
woodpecker returns with the spring-root in her beak. So soon as
she touches with the root the sod that blocks the nest, it will fly
violently out of the hole. Then spread the red cloth quickly under
the tree, so that the woodpecker may think it is a fire, and in her
terror drop the root. Some people really light a fire and strew
spikenard blossoms in it; but that is a clumsy method, for if the
flames do not shoot up at the right moment away will fly the
woodpecker, carrying the root with her.'

The party had listened with interest to this speech, but by the time it
was ended the hour was late, and they went their ways homeward,
leaving only one man who had sat unheeded in a corner the whole
evening through.

Master Peter Bloch had once been a prosperous innkeeper, and a
master-cook; but he had gone steadily down in the world for some
time, and was now quite poor.

Formerly he had been a merry fellow, fond of a joke, and in the art
of cooking had no equal in the town. He could make fish-jelly, and
quince fritters, and even wafer-cakes; and he gilded the ears of all
his boars' heads. Peter had looked about him for a wife early in life,
but unluckily his choice fell upon a woman whose evil tongue was
well known in the town. Ilse was hated by everybody, and the
young folks would go miles out of their way rather than meet her,
for she had some ill-word for everyone. Therefore, when Master
Peter came along, and let himself be taken in by her boasted skill as
a housewife, she jumped at his offer, and they were married the
next day. But they had not got home before they began to quarrel.
In the joy of his heart Peter had tasted freely of his own good wine,
and as the bride hung upon his arm he stumbled and fell, dragging
her down with him; whereupon she beat him soundly, and the
neighbours said truly that things did not promise well for Master
Peter's comfort. Even when the ill-matched couple were presently
blessed with children, his happiness was but short lived, the savage
temper of his quarrelsome wife seemed to blight them from the
first, and they died like little kids in a cold winter.

Though Master Peter had no great wealth to leave behind him, still
it was sad to him to be childless; and he would bemoan himself to
his friends, when he laid one baby after another in the grave, saying:
'The lightning has been among the cherry-blossoms again, so there
will be no fruit to grow ripe.'

But, by-and-by, he had a little daughter so strong and healthy that
neither her mother's temper nor her father's spoiling could keep her
from growing up tall and beautiful. Meanwhile the fortunes of the
family had changed. From his youth up, Master Peter had hated
trouble; when he had money he spent it freely, and fed all the
hungry folk who asked him for bread. If his pockets were empty he
borrowed of his neighbours, but he always took good care to
prevent his scolding wife from finding out that he had done so. His
motto was: 'It will all come right in the end'; but what it did come to
was ruin for Master Peter. He was at his wits' end to know how to
earn an honest living, for try as he might ill-luck seemed to pursue
him, and he lost one post after another, till at last all he could do
was to carry sacks of corn to the mill for his wife, who scolded him
well if he was slow about it, and grudged him his portion of food.

This grieved the tender heart of his pretty daughter, who loved him
dearly, and was the comfort of his life.

Peter was thinking of her as he sat in the inn kitchen and heard the
shepherds talking about the buried treasure, and for her sake he
resolved to go and seek for it. Before he rose from the landlord's
arm-chair his plan was made, and Master Peter went home more
joyful and full of hope than he had been for many a long day; but on
the way he suddenly remembered that he was not yet possessed of
the magic spring-root, and he stole into the house with a heavy
heart, and threw himself down upon his hard straw bed. He could
neither sleep nor rest; but as soon as it was light he got up and
wrote down exactly all that was to be done to find the treasure, that
he might not forget anything, and when it lay clear and plain before
his eyes he comforted himself with the thought that, though he must
do the rough work for his wife during one more winter at least, he
would not have to tread the path to the mill for the rest of his life.
Soon he heard his wife's harsh voice singing its morning song as she
went about her household affairs, scolding her daughter the while.
She burst open his door while he was still dressing: 'Well, Toper!'
was her greeting, 'have you been drinking all night, wasting money
that you steal from my housekeeping? For shame, drunkard!'

Master Peter, who was well used to this sort of talk, did not disturb
himself, but waited till the storm blew over, then he said calmly:

'Do not be annoyed, dear wife. I have a good piece of business in
hand which may turn out well for us.'

'You with a good business?' cried she, 'you are good for nothing
but talk!'

'I am making my will,' said he, 'that when my hour comes my house
may be in order.'

These unexpected words cut his daughter to the heart; she
remembered that all night long she had dreamed of a newly dug
grave, and at this thought she broke out into loud lamentations.
But her mother only cried: 'Wretch! have you not wasted goods and
possessions, and now do you talk of making a will?'

And she seized him like a fury, and tried to scratch out his eyes.
But by-and-by the quarrel was patched up, and everything went on
as before. From that day Peter saved up every penny that his
daughter Lucia gave him on the sly, and bribed the boys of his
acquaintance to spy out a black woodpecker's nest for him. He sent
them into the woods and fields, but instead of looking for a nest
they only played pranks on him. They led him miles over hill and
vale, stock and stone, to find a raven's brood, or a nest of squirrels
in a hollow tree, and when he was angry with them they laughed in
his face and ran away. This went on for some time, but at last one
of the boys spied out a woodpecker in the meadow-lands among
the wood-pigeons, and when he had found her nest in a half-dead
alder tree, came running to Peter with the news of his discovery.
Peter could hardly believe his good fortune, and went quickly to see
for himself if it was really true; and when he reached the tree there
certainly was a bird flying in and out as if she had a nest in it. Peter
was overjoyed at this fortunate discovery, and instantly set himself
to obtain a red cloak. Now in the whole town there was only one
red cloak, and that belonged to a man of whom nobody ever
willingly asked a favour—Master Hammerling the hangman. It cost
Master Peter many struggles before he could bring himself to visit
such a person, but there was no help for it, and, little as he liked it,
he ended by making his request to the hangman, who was flattered
that so respectable a man as Peter should borrow his robe of office,
and willingly lent it to him.

Peter now had all that was necessary to secure the magic root; he
stopped up the entrance to the nest, and everything fell out exactly
as Blaize had foretold. As soon as the woodpecker came back with
the root in her beak out rushed Master Peter from behind the tree
and displayed the fiery red cloak so adroitly that the terrified bird
dropped the root just where it could be easily seen. All Peter's
plans had succeeded, and he actually held in his hand the magic
root—that master-key which would unlock all doors, and bring its
possessor unheard-of luck. His thoughts now turned to the
mountain, and he secretly made preparations for his journey. He
took with him only a staff, a strong sack, and a little box which his
daughter Lucia had given him.

It happened that on the very day Peter had chosen for setting out,
Lucia and her mother went off early to the town, leaving him to
guard the house; but in spite of that he was on the point of taking
his departure when it occurred to him that it might be as well first
to test the much-vaunted powers of the magic root for himself.
Dame Ilse had a strong cupboard with seven locks built into the
wall of her room, in which she kept all the money she had saved,
and she wore the key of it always hung about her neck. Master
Peter had no control at all of the money affairs of the household, so
the contents of this secret hoard were quite unknown to him, and
this seemed to be a good opportunity for finding out what they
were. He held the magic root to the keyhole, and to his
astonishment heard all the seven locks creaking and turning, the
door flew suddenly wide open, and his greedy wife's store of gold
pieces lay before his eyes. He stood still in sheer amazement, not
knowing which to rejoice over most—this unexpected find, or the
proof of the magic root's real power; but at last he remembered that
it was quite time to be starting on his journey. So, filling his
pockets with the gold, he carefully locked the empty cupboard
again and left the house without further delay. When Dame Ilse
and her daughter returned they wondered to find the house door
shut, and Master Peter nowhere to be seen. They knocked and
called, but nothing stirred within but the house cat, and at last the
blacksmith had to be fetched to open the door. Then the house was
searched from garret to cellar, but no Master Peter was to be
found.