Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 08 (25 page)

The herdsman's two daughters and their mother were sitting at
supper, and invited him to join them. Nothing more was said about
work, and when the meal was over they all went to bed.

In the morning, when the young man was dressed, the herdsman
called to him and said:

'Now listen, and I will tell you what you have to do.'

'What is it?' asked the youth, sulkily.

'Nothing less than to look after two hundred pigs,' was the reply.

'Oh, I am used to that,' answered the youth.

'Yes; but this time you will have to do it properly,' said the
herdsman; and he took the youth to the place where the pigs were
feeding, and told him to drive them to the woods on the side of the
mountain. This the young man did, but as soon as they reached the
outskirts of the mountain they grew quite wild, and would have run
away altogether, had they not luckily gone towards a narrow
ravine, from which the youth easily drove them home to his father's
cottage.

'Where do all these pigs come from, and how did you get them?'
asked the old man in surprise, when his son knocked at the door of
the hut he had left only the day before.

'They belong to the king's chief herdsman,' answered his son. 'He
gave them to me to look after, but I knew I could not do it, so I
drove them straight to you. Now make the best of your good
fortune, and kill them and hang them up at once.'

'What are you talking about?' cried the father, pale with horror.
'We should certainly both be put to death if I did any such thing.'

'No, no; do as I tell you, and I will get out of it somehow,' replied
the young man. And in the end he had his way. The pigs were
killed, and laid side by side in a row. Then he cut off the tails and
tied them together with a piece of cord, and swinging the bundle
over his back, he returned to the place where they should have been
feeding. Here there was a small swamp, which was just what he
wanted, and finding a large stone, he fastened the rope to it, and
sank it in the swamp, after which he arranged the tails carefully one
by one, so that only their points were seen sticking out of the water.
When everything was in order, he hastened home to his master with
such a sorrowful face that the herdsman saw at once that something
dreadful had happened.

'Where are the pigs?' asked he.

'Oh, don't speak of them!' answered the young man; 'I really can
hardly tell you. The moment they got into the field they became
quite mad, and each ran in a different direction. I ran too, hither
and thither, but as fast as I caught one, another was off, till I was in
despair. At last, however, I collected them all and was about to
drive them back, when suddenly they rushed down the hill into the
swamp, where they vanished completely, leaving only the points of
their tails, which you can see for yourself.'

'You have made up that story very well,' replied the herdsman.

'No, it is the real truth; come with me and I'll prove it.' And they
went together to the spot, and there sure enough were the points of
the tails sticking up out of the water. The herdsman laid hold of the
nearest, and pulled at it with all his might, but it was no use, for the
stone and the rope held them all fast. He called to the young man
to help him, but the two did not succeed any better than the one
had done.

'Yes, your story was true after all; it is a wonderful thing,' said the
herdsman. 'But I see it is no fault of yours. and I must put up with
my loss as well as I can. Now let us return home, for it is time for
supper.

Next morning the herdsman said to the young man: 'I have got
some other work for you to do. To-day you must take a hundred
sheep to graze; but be careful that no harm befalls them.'

'I will do my best,' replied the youth. And he opened the gate of
the fold, where the sheep had been all night, and drove them out
into the meadow. But in a short time they grew as wild as the pigs
had done, and scattered in all directions. The young man could not
collect them, try as he would, and he thought to himself that this
was the punishment for his laziness in refusing to look after his
father's one cow.

At last, however, the sheep seemed tired of running about, and then
the youth managed to gather them together, and drove them, as
before, straight to his father's house.

'Whose sheep are these, and what are they doing here?' asked the
old man in wonder, and his son told him. But when the tale was
ended the father shook his head.

'Give up these bad ways and take them back to your master,' said
he.

'No, no,' answered the youth; 'I am not so stupid as that! We will
kill them and have them for dinner.'

'You will lose your life if you do,' replied the father.

'Oh, I am not sure of that!' said the son, 'and, anyway, I will have
my will for once.' And he killed all the sheep and laid them on the
grass. But he cut off the head of the ram which always led the
flock and had bells round its horns. This he took back to the place
where they should have been feeding, for here he had noticed a high
rock, with a patch of green grass in the middle and two or three
thick bushes growing on the edge. Up this rock he climbed with
great difficulty, and fastened the ram's head to the bushes with a
cord, leaving only the tips of the horns with the bells visible. As
there was a soft breeze blowing, the bushes to which the head was
tied moved gently, and the bells rang. When all was done to his
liking he hastened quickly back to his master.

'Where are the sheep?' asked the herdsman as the young man ran
panting up the steps.

'Oh! don't speak of them,' answered he. 'It is only by a miracle that
I am here myself.'

'Tell me at once what has happened,' said the herdsman sternly.

The youth began to sob, and stammered out: 'I—I hardly know how
to tell you! They—they—they were so—so troublesome—that I could
not manage them at all. They—ran about in—in all directions, and I-
-I—ran after them and nearly died of fatigue. Then I heard a—a
noise, which I—I thought was the wind. But—but—it was the sheep,
which, be—before my very eyes, were carried straight up—up into
the air. I stood watching them as if I was turned to stone, but there
kept ringing in my ears the sound of the bells on the ram which led
them.'

'That is nothing but a lie from beginning to end,' said the herdsman.

'No, it is as true as that there is a sun in heaven,' answered the
young man.

'Then give me a proof of it,' cried his master.

'Well, come with me,' said the youth. By this time it was evening
and the dusk was falling. The young man brought the herdsman to
the foot of the great rock, but it was so dark you could hardly see.
Still the sound of sheep bells rang softly from above, and the
herdsman knew them to be those he had hung on the horns of his
ram.

'Do you hear?' asked the youth.

'Yes, I hear; you have spoken the truth, and I cannot blame you for
what has happened. I must bear the loss as best as I can.'

He turned and went home, followed by the young man, who felt
highly pleased with his own cleverness.

'I should not be surprised if the tasks I set you were too difficult,
and that you were tired of them,' said the herdsman next morning;
'but to-day I have something quite easy for you to do. You must
look after forty oxen, and be sure you are very careful, for one of
them has gold-tipped horns and hoofs, and the king reckons it
among his greatest treasures.'

The young man drove out the oxen into the meadow, and no sooner
had they got there than, like the sheep and the pigs, they began to
scamper in all directions, the precious bull being the wildest of all.
As the youth stood watching them, not knowing what to do next, it
came into his head that his father's cow was put out to grass at no
great distance; and he forthwith made such a noise that he quite
frightened the oxen, who were easily persuaded to take the path he
wished. When they heard the cow lowing they galloped all the
faster, and soon they all arrived at his father's house.

The old man was standing before the door of his hut when the great
herd of animals dashed round a corner of the road, with his son and
his own cow at their head.

'Whose cattle are these, and why are they here?' he asked; and his
son told him the story.

'Take them back to your master as soon as you can,' said the old
man; but the son only laughed, and said:

'No, no; they are a present to you! They will make you fat!'

For a long while the old man refused to have anything to do with
such a wicked scheme; but his son talked him over in the end, and
they killed the oxen as they had killed the sheep and the pigs. Last
of all they came to the king's cherished ox.

The son had a rope ready to cast round its horns, and throw it to
the ground, but the ox was stronger than the rope, and soon tore it
in pieces. Then it dashed away to the wood, the youth following;
over hedges and ditches they both went, till they reached the rocky
pass which bordered the herdsman's land. Here the ox, thinking
itself safe, stopped to rest, and thus gave the young man a chance
to come up with it. Not knowing how to catch it, he collected all
the wood he could find and made a circle of fire round the ox, who
by this time had fallen asleep, and did not wake till the fire had
caught its head, and it was too late for it to escape. Then the young
man, who had been watching, ran home to his master.

'You have been away a long while,' said the herdsman. 'Where are
the cattle?'

The young man gasped, and seemed as if he was unable to speak.
At last he answered:

'It is always the same story! The oxen are—gone—gone!'

'G-g-gone?' cried the herdsman. 'Scoundrel, you lie!'

'I am telling you the exact truth,' answered the young man.
'Directly we came to the meadow they grew so wild that I could not
keep them together. Then the big ox broke away, and the others
followed till they all disappeared down a deep hole into the earth.
It seemed to me that I heard sounds of bellowing, and I thought I
recognised the voice of the golden horned ox; but when I got to the
place from which the sounds had come, I could neither see nor hear
anything in the hole itself, though there were traces of a fire all
round it.'

'Wretch!' cried the herdsman, when he had heard this story, 'even if
you did not lie before, you are lying now.'

'No, master, I am speaking the truth. Come and see for yourself.'

'If I find you have deceived me, you are a dead man, said the
herdsman; and they went out together.

'What do you call that?' asked the youth. And the herdsman looked
and saw the traces of a fire, which seemed to have sprung up from
under the earth.

'Wonder upon wonder,' he exclaimed, 'so you really did speak the
truth after all! Well, I cannot reproach you, though I shall have to
pay heavily to my royal master for the value of that ox. But come,
let us go home! I will never set you to herd cattle again,
henceforward I will give you something easier to do.'

'I have thought of exactly the thing for you,' said the herdsman as
they walked along, ' and it is so simple that you cannot make a
mistake. Just make me ten scythes, one for every man, for I want
the grass mown in one of my meadows to-morrow.'

At these words the youth's heart sank, for he had never been trained
either as a smith or a joiner. However, he dared not say no, but
smiled and nodded.

Slowly and sadly he went to bed, but he could not sleep, for
wondering how the scythes were to be made. All the skill and
cunning he had shown before was of no use to him now, and after
thinking about the scythes for many hours, there seemed only one
way open to him. So, listening to make sure that all was still, he
stole away to his parents, and told them the whole story. When
they had heard everything, they hid him where no one could find
him.

Time passed away, and the young man stayed at home doing all his
parents bade him, and showing himself very different from what he
had been before he went out to see the world; but one day he said
to his father that he should like to marry, and have a house of his
own.

'When I served the king's chief herdsman,' added he, 'I saw his
daughter, and I am resolved to try if I cannot win her for my wife.'

'It will cost you your life, if you do,' answered the father, shaking
his head.

'Well, I will do my best,' replied his son; 'but first give me the sword
which hangs over your bed!'

The old man did not understand what good the sword would do,
however he took it down, and the young man went his way.

Late in the evening he arrived at the house of the herdsman, and
knocked at the door, which was opened by a little boy.

'I want to speak to your master,' said he.

'So it is you?' cried the herdsman, when he had received the
message. 'Well, you can sleep here to-night if you wish.'

'I have come for something else besides a bed,' replied the young
man, drawing his sword, 'and if you do not promise to give me your
youngest daughter as my wife I will stab you through the heart.'

What could the poor man do but promise? And he fetched his
youngest daughter, who seemed quite pleased at the proposed
match, and gave the youth her hand.

Then the young man went home to his parents, and bade them get
ready to welcome his bride. And when the wedding was over he
told his father-in-law, the herdsman, what he had done with the
sheep, and pigs, and cattle. By-and-by the story came to the king's
ears, and he thought that a man who was so clever was just the man
to govern the country; so he made him his minister, and after the
king himself there was no one so great as he.

(From Islandische Mahrchen.)

Once upon a time there lived an old man who had only one son,
whom he loved dearly; but they were very poor, and often had
scarcely enough to eat. Then the old man fell ill, and things grew
worse than ever, so he called his son and said to him: