and he digged, but neither silver nor gold did he find. He digged
and digged; and by-and-by, at last, he did find something. And
what was it? Why, nothing but something that looked like a piece
of blue glass not a bit bigger than my thumb. “Is that all?” said
Jacob Stuck. “And have I travelled all this weary way and into the
blinding desert only for this? Have I passed by silver and gold
enough to make me rich for all my life, only to find a little piece
of blue glass?”
Jacob Stuck did not know what he had found. I shall tell you what
it was. It was a solid piece of good luck without flaw or blemish,
and it was almost the only piece I ever heard tell of. Yes; that
was what it was--a solid piece of good luck; and as for Jacob
Stuck, why, he was not the first in the world by many and one over
who has failed to know a piece of good luck when they have found
it. Yes; it looked just like a piece of blue glass no bigger than
my thumb, and nothing else.
[Illustration]
“Is that all?” said Jacob Stuck. “And have I travelled all this
weary way and into the blinding desert only for this? Have I passed
by silver and gold enough to make me rich for all my life, only to
find a little piece of blue glass?”
He looked at the bit of glass, and he turned it over and over in
his hand. It was covered with dirt. Jacob Stuck blew his breath
upon it, and rubbed it with his thumb.
Crack! dong! bang! smash!
Upon my word, had a bolt of lightning burst at Jacob Stuck’s feet
he could not have been more struck of a heap. For no sooner had he
rubbed the glass with his thumb than with a noise like a clap of
thunder there instantly stood before him a great, big man, dressed
in clothes as red as a flame, and with eyes that shone sparks of
fire. It was the Genie of Good Luck. It nearly knocked Jacob Stuck
off his feet to see him there so suddenly.
“What will you have?” said the Genie. “I am the slave of good
luck. Whosoever holds that piece of crystal in his hand him must I
obey in whatsoever he may command.”
“Do you mean that you are my servant and that I am your master?”
said Jacob Stuck.
“Yes; command and I obey.”
“Why, then,” said Jacob Stuck, “I would like you to help me out of
this desert place, if you can do so, for it is a poor spot for any
Christian soul to be.”
“To hear is to obey,” said the Genie, and, before Jacob Stuck knew
what had happened to him, the Genie had seized him and was flying
with him through the air swifter than the wind. On and on he flew,
and the earth seemed to slide away beneath. On and on flew the
flame-colored Genie until at last he set Jacob down in a great
meadow where there was a river. Beyond the river were the white
walls and grand houses of the king’s town.
“Hast thou any further commands?” said the Genie.
“Tell me what you can do for me?” said Jacob Stuck.
“I can do whatsoever thou mayest order me to do,” said the Genie.
“Well, then,” said Jacob Stuck, “I think first of all I would like
to have plenty of money to spend.”
“To hear is to obey,” said the Genie, and, as he spoke, he reached
up into the air and picked out a purse from nothing at all. “Here,”
said he, “is the purse of fortune; take from it all that thou
needest and yet it will always be full. As long as thou hast it
thou shalt never be lacking riches.”
“I am very much obliged to you,” said Jacob Stuck. “I’ve learned
geometry and algebra and astronomy and the hidden arts, but I never
heard tell of anything like this before.”
* * * * *
So Jacob Stuck went into the town with all the money he could
spend, and such a one is welcome anywhere. He lacked nothing that
money could buy. He bought himself a fine house; he made all the
friends he wanted, and more; he lived without a care, and with
nothing to do but to enjoy himself. That was what a bit of good
luck did for him.
Now the princess, the daughter of the king of that town, was the
most beautiful in all the world, but so proud and haughty that her
like was not to be found within the bounds of all the seven rivers.
So proud was she and so haughty that she would neither look upon
a young man nor allow any young man to look upon her. She was so
particular that whenever she went out to take a ride a herald
was sent through the town with a trumpet ordering that every house
should be closed and that everybody should stay within doors, so
that the princess should run no risk of seeing a young man, or that
no young man by chance should see her.
[Illustration]
One day the herald went through the town blowing his trumpet and
calling in a great, loud voice: “Close your doors! Close your
windows! Her highness, the princess, comes to ride; let no man look
upon her on pain of death!”
Thereupon everybody began closing their doors and windows, and, as
it was with the others, so it was with Jacob Stuck’s house; it had,
like all the rest, to be shut up as tight as a jug.
But Jacob Stuck was not satisfied with that; not he. He was for
seeing the princess, and he was bound he would do so. So he bored
a hole through the door, and when the princess came riding by he
peeped out at her.
Jacob Stuck thought he had never seen anyone so beautiful in all
his life. It was like the sunlight shining in his eyes, and he
almost sneezed. Her cheeks were like milk and rose-leaves, and her
hair like fine threads of gold. She sat in a golden coach with
a golden crown upon her head, and Jacob Stuck stood looking and
looking until his heart melted within him like wax in the oven.
Then the princess was gone, and Jacob Stuck stood there sighing and
sighing.
“Oh, dear! dear!” said he, “what shall I do? For, proud as she is,
I must see her again or else I will die of it.”
All that day he sat sighing and thinking about the beautiful
princess, until the evening had come. Then he suddenly thought of
his piece of good luck. He pulled his piece of blue glass out of
his pocket and breathed upon it and rubbed it with his thumb, and
instantly the Genie was there.
This time Jacob Stuck was not frightened at all.
“What are thy commands, O master?” said the Genie.
“O Genie!” said Jacob Stuck, “I have seen the princess to-day, and
it seems to me that there is nobody like her in all the world. Tell
me, could you bring her here so that I might see her again?”
“Yes,” said the Genie, “I could.”
“Then do so,” said Jacob Stuck, “and I will have you prepare a
grand feast, and have musicians to play beautiful music, for I
would have the princess sup with me.”
“To hear is to obey,” said the Genie. As he spoke he smote his
hands together, and instantly there appeared twenty musicians,
dressed in cloth of gold and silver. With them they brought
hautboys and fiddles, big and little, and flageolets and drums and
horns, and this and that to make music with. Again the Genie smote
his hands together, and instantly there appeared fifty servants
dressed in silks and satins and spangled with jewels, who began
to spread a table with fine linen embroidered with gold, and to
set plates of gold and silver upon it. The Genie smote his hands
together a third time, and in answer there came six servants. They
led Jacob Stuck into another room, where there was a bath of musk
and rose-water. They bathed him in the bath and dressed him in
clothes like an emperor, and when he came out again his face shone,
and he was as handsome as a picture.
[Illustration]
Then by-and-by he knew that the princess was coming, for suddenly
there was the sound of girls’ voices singing and the twanging of
stringed instruments. The door flew open, and in came a crowd of
beautiful girls, singing and playing music, and after them the
princess herself, more beautiful than ever. But the proud princess
was frightened! Yes, she was. And well she might be, for the Genie
had flown with her through the air from the palace, and that is
enough to frighten anybody. Jacob Stuck came to her all glittering
and shining with jewels and gold, and took her by the hand. He led
her up the hall, and as he did so the musicians struck up and began
playing the most beautiful music in the world. Then Jacob Stuck and
the princess sat down to supper and began eating and drinking, and
Jacob Stuck talked of all the sweetest things he could think of.
Thousands of wax candles made the palace bright as day, and as the
princess looked about her she thought she had never seen anything
so fine in all the world. After they had eaten their supper and
ended with a dessert of all kinds of fruits and of sweetmeats, the
door opened and there came a beautiful young serving-lad, carrying
a silver tray, upon which was something wrapped in a napkin. He
kneeled before Jacob Stuck and held the tray, and from the napkin
Jacob Stuck took a necklace of diamonds, each stone as big as a
pigeon’s egg.
“This is to remind you of me,” said Jacob Stuck, “when you have
gone home again.” And as he spoke he hung it around the princess’s
neck.
Just then the clock struck twelve.
Hardly had the last stroke sounded when every light was snuffed
out, and all was instantly dark and still. Then, before she had
time to think, the Genie of Good Luck snatched the princess up once
more and flew back to the palace more swiftly than the wind. And,
before the princess knew what had happened to her, there she was.
It was all so strange that the princess might have thought it was a
dream, only for the necklace of diamonds, the like of which was not
to be found in all the world.
The next morning there was a great buzzing in the palace, you may
be sure. The princess told all about how she had been carried away
during the night, and had supped in such a splendid palace, and
with such a handsome man dressed like an emperor. She showed her
necklace of diamonds, and the king and his prime-minister could not
look at it or wonder at it enough. The prime-minister and the king
talked and talked the matter over together, and every now and then
the proud princess put in a word of her own.
“Anybody,” said the prime-minister, “can see with half an eye that
it is all magic, or else it is a wonderful piece of good luck. Now,
I’ll tell you what shall be done,” said he: “the princess shall
keep a piece of chalk by her; and, if she is carried away again in
such a fashion, she shall mark a cross with the piece of chalk on
the door of the house to which she is taken. Then we shall find the
rogue that is playing such a trick, and that quickly enough.”
“Yes,” said the king; “that is very good advice.”
“I will do it,” said the princess.
All that day Jacob Stuck sat thinking and thinking about the
beautiful princess. He could not eat a bite, and he could hardly
wait for the night to come. As soon as it had fallen, he breathed
upon his piece of glass and rubbed his thumb upon it, and there
stood the Genie of Good Luck.
“I’d like the princess here again,” said he, “as she was last
night, with feasting and drinking, such as we had before.”
“To hear is to obey,” said the Genie.
And as it had been the night before, so it was now. The Genie
brought the princess, and she and Jacob Stuck feasted together
until nearly midnight. Then, again, the door opened, and the
beautiful servant-lad came with the tray and something upon it
covered with a napkin. Jacob Stuck unfolded the napkin, and this
time it was a cup made of a single ruby, and filled to the brim
with gold money. And the wonder of the cup was this: that no matter
how much money you took out of it, it was always full. “Take this,”
said Jacob Stuck, “to remind you of me.” Then the clock struck
twelve, and instantly all was darkness, and the Genie carried the
princess home again.
But the princess had brought her piece of chalk with her, as the
prime-minister had advised; and in some way or other she contrived,
either in coming or going, to mark a cross upon the door of Jacob
Stuck’s house.
But, clever as she was, the Genie of Good Luck was more clever
still. He saw what the princess did; and, as soon as he had
carried her home, he went all through the town and marked a cross
upon every door, great and small, little and big, just as the
princess had done upon the door of Jacob Stuck’s house, only upon
the prime-minister’s door he put two crosses. The next morning
everybody was wondering what all the crosses on the house-doors
meant, and the king and the prime-minister were no wiser than they
had been before.
But the princess had brought her ruby cup with her, and she and the
king could not look at it and wonder at it enough.
“Pooh!” said the prime-minister; “I tell you it is nothing else in
the world but just a piece of good luck--that is all it is. As for
the rogue who is playing all these tricks, let the princess keep a
pair of scissors by her, and, if she is carried away again, let her
contrive to cut off a lock of his hair from over the young man’s
right ear. Then to-morrow we will find out who has been trimmed.”
Yes, the princess would do that; so, before evening was come, she
tied a pair of scissors to her belt.
Well, Jacob Stuck could hardly wait for the night to come to summon
the Genie of Good Luck. “I want to sup with the princess again,”
said he.
“To hear is to obey,” said the Genie of Good Luck; and, as soon as
he had made everything ready, away he flew to fetch the princess
again.
Well, they feasted and drank, and the music played, and the candles
were as bright as day, and beautiful girls sang and danced, and
Jacob Stuck was as happy as a king. But the princess kept her
scissors by her, and, when Jacob Stuck was not looking, she
contrived to snip off a lock of his hair from over his right ear,
and nobody saw what was done but the Genie of Good Luck.
So it came towards midnight.
Once more the door opened, and the beautiful serving-lad came
into the room, carrying the tray of silver with something upon it
wrapped in a napkin. This time Jacob Stuck gave the princess an
emerald ring for a keepsake, and the wonder of it was that every
morning two other rings just like it would drop from it.
Then twelve o’clock sounded, the lights went out, and the Genie
took the princess home again.
But the Genie had seen what the princess had done. As soon as he
had taken her safe home, he struck his palms together and summoned
all his companions. “Go,” said he, “throughout the town and trim
a lock of hair from over the right ear of every man in the whole
place;” and so they did, from the king himself to the beggar-man
at the gates. As for the prime-minister, the Genie himself trimmed
two locks of hair from him, one from over each of his ears, so that
the next morning he looked as shorn as an old sheep. In the morning
all the town was in a hubbub, and everybody was wondering how all
the men came to have their hair clipped as it was. But the princess
had brought the lock of Jacob Stuck’s hair away with her wrapped up
in a piece of paper, and there it was.
[Illustration]
As for the ring Jacob Stuck had given to her, why, the next morning
there were three of them, and the king thought he had never heard
tell of such a wonderful thing.
“I tell you,” said the prime-minister, “there is nothing in it but
a piece of good luck, and not a grain of virtue. It’s just a piece
of good luck--that’s all it is.”
“No matter,” said the king; “I never saw the like of it in all my
life before. And now, what are we going to do?”
The prime-minister could think of nothing.
Then the princess spoke up. “Your majesty,” she said, “I can find
the young man for you. Just let the herald go through the town and
proclaim that I will marry the young man to whom this lock of hair
belongs, and then we will find him quickly enough.”
“What!” cried the prime-minister; “will, then, the princess marry a
man who has nothing better than a little bit of good luck to help
him along in the world?”
“Yes,” said the princess, “I shall if I can find him.”
So the herald was sent out around the town proclaiming that the
princess would marry the man to whose head belonged the lock of
hair that she had.
A lock of hair! Why, every man had lost a lock of hair! Maybe the
princess could fit it on again, and then the fortune of him to whom
it belonged would be made. All the men in the town crowded up to
the king’s palace. But all for no use, for never a one of them was
fitted with his own hair.
As for Jacob Stuck, he too had heard what the herald had
proclaimed. Yes; he too had heard it, and his heart jumped and
hopped within him like a young lamb in the spring-time. He knew
whose hair it was the princess had. Away he went by himself, and
rubbed up his piece of blue glass, and there stood the Genie.
“What are thy commands?” said he.
“I am,” said Jacob Stuck, “going up to the king’s palace to marry
the princess, and I would have a proper escort.”
“To hear is to obey,” said the Genie.
He smote his hands together, and instantly there appeared a score
of attendants who took Jacob Stuck, and led him into another room,
and began clothing him in a suit so magnificent that it dazzled the
eyes to look at it. He smote his hands together again, and out in
the court-yard there appeared a troop of horsemen to escort Jacob
Stuck to the palace, and they were all clad in gold-and-silver
armor. He smote his hands together again, and there appeared
twenty-and-one horses--twenty as black as night and one as white as
milk, and it twinkled and sparkled all over with gold and jewels,
and at the head of each horse of the one-and-twenty horses stood a
slave clad in crimson velvet to hold the bridle. Again he smote his
hands together, and there appeared in the ante-room twenty handsome
young men, each with a marble bowl filled with gold money, and when
Jacob Stuck came out dressed in his fine clothes there they all
were.
Jacob Stuck mounted upon the horse as white as milk, the young men
mounted each upon one of the black horses, the troopers in the
gold-and-silver armor wheeled their horses, the trumpets blew, and
away they rode--such a sight as was never seen in that town before,
when they had come out into the streets. The young men with the
basins scattered the gold money to the people, and a great crowd
ran scrambling after, and shouted and cheered.
[Illustration]
So Jacob Stuck rode up to the king’s palace, and the king himself
came out to meet him with the princess hanging on his arm.
As for the princess, she knew him the moment she laid eyes on him.
She came down the steps, and set the lock of hair against his head,
where she had trimmed it off the night before, and it fitted and
matched exactly. “This is the young man,” said she, “and I will
marry him, and none other.”
But the prime-minister whispered and whispered in the king’s ear:
“I tell you this young man is nobody at all,” said he, “but just
some fellow who has had a little bit of good luck.”
“Pooh!” said the king, “stuff and nonsense! Just look at all the
gold and jewels and horses and men. What will you do,” said he to
Jacob Stuck, “if I let you marry the princess?”
“I will,” said Jacob Stuck, “build for her the finest palace that
ever was seen in all this world.”
“Very well,” said the king, “yonder are those sand hills over
there. You shall remove them and build your palace there. When it
is finished you shall marry the princess.” For if he does that,
thought the king to himself, it is something better than mere good
luck.
“It shall,” said Jacob Stuck, “be done by to-morrow morning.”
Well, all that day Jacob Stuck feasted and made merry at the king’s
palace, and the king wondered when he was going to begin to build
his palace. But Jacob Stuck said nothing at all; he just feasted
and drank and made merry. When night had come, however, it was all
different. Away he went by himself, and blew his breath upon his
piece of blue glass, and rubbed it with his thumb. Instantly there
stood the Genie before him. “What wouldst thou have?” said he.
“I would like,” said Jacob Stuck, “to have the sand hills over
yonder carried away, and a palace built there of white marble and
gold and silver, such as the world never saw before. And let there
be gardens planted there with flowering plants and trees, and let
there be fountains and marble walks. And let there be servants and
attendants in the palace of all sorts and kinds--men and women. And
let there be a splendid feast spread for to-morrow morning, for
then I am going to marry the princess.”
“To hear is to obey,” said the Genie, and instantly he was gone.
All night there was from the sand hills a ceaseless sound as of
thunder--a sound of banging and clapping and hammering and sawing
and calling and shouting. All that night the sounds continued
unceasingly, but at daybreak all was still, and when the sun arose
there stood the most splendid palace it ever looked down upon;
shining as white as snow, and blazing with gold and silver. All
around it were gardens and fountains and orchards. A great highway
had been built between it and the king’s palace, and all along the
highway a carpet of cloth of gold had been spread for the princess
to walk upon.
Dear! dear! how all the town stared with wonder when they saw such
a splendid palace standing where the day before had been nothing
but naked sand hills! The folk flocked in crowds to see it, and all
the country about was alive with people coming and going. As for
the king, he could not believe his eyes when he saw it. He stood
with the princess and looked and looked. Then came Jacob Stuck.
“And now,” said he, “am I to marry the princess?”
“Yes,” cried the king in admiration, “you are!”
So Jacob Stuck married the princess, and a splendid wedding it was.
That was what a little bit of good luck did for him.
[Illustration]
After the wedding was over, it was time to go home to the grand
new palace. Then there came a great troop of horsemen with shining
armor and with music, sent by the Genie to escort Jacob Stuck and
the princess and the king and the prime-minister to Jacob Stuck’s
new palace. They rode along over the carpet of gold, and such a
fine sight was never seen in that land before. As they drew near to
the palace a great crowd of servants, clad in silks and satins and
jewels, came out to meet them, singing and dancing and playing on
harps and lutes. The king and the princess thought that they must
be dreaming.
“All this is yours,” said Jacob Stuck to the princess; and he was
that fond of her, he would have given her still more if he could
have thought of anything else.
Jacob Stuck and the princess, and the king and the prime-minister,
all went into the palace, and there was a splendid feast spread in
plates of pure gold and silver, and they all four sat down together.
But the prime-minister was as sour about it all as a crab-apple.
All the time they were feasting he kept whispering and whispering
in the king’s ear. “It is all stuff and nonsense,” said he, “for
such a man as Jacob Stuck to do all this by himself. I tell you, it
is all a piece of good luck, and not a bit of merit in it.”
He whispered and whispered, until at last the king up and spoke.
“Tell me, Jacob Stuck,” he said, “where do you get all these fine
things?”
“It all comes of a piece of good luck,” said Jacob Stuck.
“That is what I told you,” said the prime-minister.
“A piece of good luck!” said the king. “Where did you come across
such a piece of good luck?”
“I found it,” said Jacob Stuck.
“Found it!” said the king; “and have you got it with you now?”
“Yes, I have,” said Jacob Stuck; “I always carry it about with me;”
and he thrust his hand into his pocket and brought out his piece of
blue crystal.
“That!” said the king. “Why, that is nothing but a piece of blue
glass!”
“That,” said Jacob Stuck, “is just what I thought till I found out
better. It is no common piece of glass, I can tell you. You just
breathe upon it so, and rub your thumb upon it thus, and instantly
a Genie dressed in red comes to do all that he is bidden. That is
how it is.”
“I should like to see it,” said the king.
“So you shall,” said Jacob Stuck; “here it is,” said he; and he
reached it across the table to the prime-minister to give it to the
king.
Yes, that was what he did; he gave it to the prime-minister to give
it to the king. The prime-minister had been listening to all that
had been said, and he knew what he was about. He took what Jacob
Stuck gave him, and he had never had such a piece of luck come to
him before.
And did the prime-minister give it to the king, as Jacob Stuck had
intended? Not a bit of it. No sooner had he got it safe in his
hand, than he blew his breath upon it and rubbed it with his thumb.
Crack! dong! boom! crash!
There stood the Genie, like a flash and as red as fire. The
princess screamed out and nearly fainted at the sight, and the poor
king sat trembling like a rabbit.
“Whosoever possesses that piece of blue crystal,” said the Genie,
in a terrible voice, “him must I obey. What are thy commands?”
“Take this king,” cried the prime-minister, “and take Jacob Stuck,
and carry them both away into the farthest part of the desert
whence the fellow came.”