Brick Fairy Tales: Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Hansel and Gretel, and More (41 page)

But the manikin said, “No, something that is living is dearer to me than all the treasures in the world.”

Then the Queen began to weep and cry, so that the manikin pitied her.

“I will give you three days’ time,” said he, “if by that time you find out my name, then shall you keep your child.”

So the Queen thought the whole night of all the names that she had ever heard,

and she sent a messenger over the country to inquire, far and wide, for any other names that there might be.

When the manikin came the next day, she began with Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar, and said all the names she knew, one after another;

but to every one the little man said, “That is not my name.”

On the second day she had inquiries made in the neighborhood as to the names of the people there, and she repeated to the manikin the most uncommon and curious. “Perhaps your name is Shortribs, or Sheepshanks, or Laceleg?”

but he always answered, “That is not my name.”

On the third day the messenger came back again, and said, “I have not been able to find a single new name,

but as I came to a high mountain at the end of the forest, where the fox and the hare bid each other good night, there I saw a little house, and before the house a fire was burning,

and round about the fire quite a ridiculous little man was jumping: he hopped upon one leg, and shouted—“To-day I bake, to-morrow brew, The next I’ll have the young Queen’s child. Ha! glad am I that no one knew That Rumpelstiltskin I am styled.”

You may think how glad the Queen was when she heard the name!