"Once on a time there was a cottager who had an only son, and this lad
was weakly, and hadn't much health to speak of; so he couldn't go out to
work in the field.
"His name was Freddy, and undersized he was, too; and so they called him
Little Freddy. At home there was little either to bite or sup, and so
his father went about the country trying to bind him over as a cowherd
or an errand-boy; but there was no one who would take his son till he
came to the sheriff, and he was ready to take him, for he had just
packed off his errand-boy, and there was no one who would fill his
place, for the story went that he was a skinflint.
"But the cottager thought it was better there than nowhere: he would get
his food, for all the pay he was to get was his board--there was nothing
said about wages or clothes. So when the lad had served three years he
wanted to leave, and then the sheriff gave him all his wages at one
time. He was to have a penny a year. 'It couldn't well be less,' said
the sheriff. And so he got threepence in all.
"As for little Freddy, he thought it was a great sum, for he had never
owned so much; but for all that he asked if he wasn't to have something
more.
"'You have already had more than you ought to have,' said the sheriff.
"'Sha'n't I have anything, then, for clothes?' asked little Freddy; 'for
those I had on when I came here are worn to rags, and I have had no new
ones.'
"And, to tell the truth, he was so ragged that the tatters hung and
flapped about him.
"'When you have got what we agreed on,' said the sheriff, 'and three
whole pennies beside, I have nothing more to do with you. Be off!'
"But for all that he got leave just to go into the kitchen and get a
little food to put in his scrip; and after that he set off on the road
to buy himself more clothes. He was both merry and glad, for he had
never seen a penny before; and every now and then he felt in his pockets
as he went along to see if he had them all three. So when he had gone
far, and farther than far, he got into a narrow dale, with high fells on
all sides, so that he couldn't tell if there were any way to pass out;
and he began to wonder what there could be on the other side of those
fells, and how he ever should get over them.
"But up and up he had to go, and on he strode; he was not strong on his
legs, and had to rest every now and then--and then he counted and
counted how many pennies he had got. So when he had got quite up to the
very top, there was nothing but a great plain overgrown with moss. There
he sat him down, and began to see if his money were all right; and
before he was aware of him a beggarman came up to him--and he was so
tall and big that the lad began to scream and screech when he got a good
look of him, and saw his height and length.
"'Don't you be afraid,' said the beggarman, 'I'll do you no harm; I only
beg for a penny, in God's name.'
"'Heaven help me!' said the lad. 'I have only three pennies, and with
them I was going to the town to buy clothes.'
"'It is worse for me than for you,' said the beggarman. "'I have got no
penny, and I am still more ragged than you.'
"'Well! then you shall have it,' said the lad.
"So when he had walked on awhile he got weary, and sat down to rest
again. But when he looked up there he saw another beggarman, and he was
still taller and uglier than the first; and so when the lad saw how very
tall and ugly and long he was he fell a-screeching.
"'Now, don't you be afraid of me,' said the beggar; 'I'll not do you any
harm. I only beg for a penny, in God's name.'
"'Now, may heaven help me!' said the lad. 'I've only got two pence, and
with them I was going to the town to buy clothes. If I had only met you
sooner, then----'
"'It's worse for me than for you,' said the beggarman. I have no penny,
and a bigger body and less clothing.'
"'Well, you may have it,' said the lad.
"So he went awhile farther, till he got weary, and then he sat down to
rest; but he had scarce sat down than a third beggarman came to him. He
was so tall and ugly and long, that the lad had to look up and up, right
up to the sky. And when he took him all in with his eyes, and saw how
very, very tall and ugly and ragged he was he fell a-screeching and
screaming again.
"'Now, don't you be afraid of me, my lad,' said the beggarman. 'I'll do
you no harm; for I am only a beggarman, who begs for a penny in God's
name.'
"'May heaven help me!' said the lad. 'I have only one penny left, and
with it I was going to the town to buy clothes. If I had only met you
sooner, then----'
"'As for that,' said the beggarman, 'I have no penny at all--that I
haven't, and a bigger body and less clothes, so it is worse for me than
for you.'
"'Yes!' said little Freddy, he must have the penny then--there was no
help for it; for so each would have what belonged to him, and he would
have nothing.
"'Well!' said the beggarman, 'since you have such a good heart that you
gave away all that you had in the world, I will give you a wish for each
penny.' For you must know it was the same beggarman who had got them all
three; he had only changed his shape each time, that the lad might not
know him again.
"'I have always had such a longing to hear a fiddle go, and see folk so
glad and merry that they couldn't help dancing,' said the lad; and so,
if I may wish what I choose, I will wish myself such a fiddle, that
everything that has life must dance to its tune.'
"'That he might have,' said the beggarman; but it was a sorry wish. 'You
must wish something better for the other two pennies.'
"'I have always had such a love for hunting and shooting,' said little
Freddy; 'so if I may wish what I choose, I will wish myself such a gun
that I shall hit everything I aim at, were it ever so far off.'
"'That he might have,' said the beggarman; 'but it was a sorry wish. You
must wish better for the last penny.'
"'I have always had a longing to be in company with folk who were kind
and good,' said little Freddy; and so, if I could get what I wish, I
would wish it to be so that no one can say 'Nay' to the first thing I
ask.'
"'That wish was not so sorry,' said the beggarman; and off he strode
between the hills, and he saw him no more. And so the lad laid down to
sleep, and the next day he came down from the fell with his fiddle and
his gun.
"First he went to the storekeeper and asked for clothes, and at one farm
he asked for a horse, and at another for a sledge; and at this place he
asked for a fur-coat, and no one said him 'Nay,'--even the stingiest
folk, they were all forced to give him what he asked for. At last he
went through the country as a fine gentleman, and had his horse and his
sledge; and so when he had gone a bit he met the sheriff with whom he
had served.
"'Good-day, master,' said Little Freddy, as he pulled up and took off
his hat.
"'Good-day,' said the sheriff. And then he went on, 'When was I ever
your master?'
"'Oh, yes!' said little Freddy. 'Don't you remember how I served you
three years for three pence?'
"'Heaven help us!' said the sheriff. 'How you have got on all of a
hurry! And pray how was it that you got to be such a fine gentleman?'
"'Oh, that's telling!' said little Freddy.
"'And are you full of fun, that you carry a fiddle about with you?'
asked the sheriff.
"'Yes! yes!' said Freddy. 'I have always had such a longing to get folk
to dance; but the funniest thing of all is this gun, for it brings down
almost anything that I aim at, however far it may be off. Do you see
that magpie yonder, sitting in the spruce fir? What'll you bet I don't
bag it, as we stand here?'
"On that the sheriff was ready to stake horse and groom, and a hundred
dollars beside, that he couldn't do it; but, as it was, he would bet all
the money he had about him; and he would go to fetch it when it
fell--for he never thought it possible for any gun to carry so far.
"But as the gun went off down fell the magpie, and into a great bramble
thicket; and away went the sheriff up into the brambles after it, and he
picked it up and showed it to the lad. But in a trice Little Freddy
began to scrape his fiddle, and the sheriff began to dance, and the
thorns to tear him; but still the lad played on, and the sheriff danced,
and cried, and begged till his clothes flew to tatters, and he scarce
had a thread to his back.
"'Yes!' said Little Freddy; 'now I think you're about as ragged as I was
when I left your service. So now you may get off with what you have
got.'
"But, first of all, the sheriff had to pay him what he had wagered that
he could not hit the magpie.
"So when the lad came to the town he turned aside into an inn, and he
began to play, and all who came danced, and he lived merrily and well.
He had no care, for no one could say him 'Nay' to anything he asked.
"But just as they were all in the midst of their fun up came the
watchmen to drag the lad off to the town-hall: for the sheriff had laid
a charge against him, and said he had waylaid him and robbed him, and
nearly taken his life. And now he was to be hanged--they would not hear
of anything else. But Little Freddy had a cure for all trouble, and that
was his fiddle. He began to play on it, and the watchmen fell a-dancing,
till they lay down and gasped for breath.
"So they sent soldiers and the guard on their way; but it was no better
with them than with the watchmen. As soon as ever Little Freddy scraped
his fiddle, they were all bound to dance, so long as he could lift a
finger to play a tune; but they were half dead long before he was tired.
At last they stole a march on him, and took him while he lay asleep by
night; and when they had caught him he was doomed to be hanged on the
spot, and away they hurried him to the gallows-tree.
"There a great crowd of people flocked together to see this wonder, and
the sheriff, he, too, was there; and he was so glad at last at getting
amends for the money and the skin he had lost, and that he might see him
hanged with his own eyes. But they did not get him to the gallows very
fast, for little Freddy was always weak on his legs, and now he made
himself weaker still. His fiddle and his gun he had with him also--it
was hard to part him from them; and so, when he came to the gallows, and
had to mount the steps, he halted on each step; and when he got to the
top he sat down, and asked if they could deny him a wish, and if he
might have leave to do one thing? He had such a longing, he said to
scrape a tune and play a bar on his fiddle before they hanged him.
"'No! no!' they said. 'It were sin and shame to deny him that.' For, you
know, no one could gainsay what he asked.
"But the sheriff he begged them, for God's sake, not to let him have
leave to touch a string, else it was all over with them altogether; and
if the lad got leave, he begged them to bind him to the birch that stood
there.
"So little Freddy was not slow in getting his fiddle to speak, and all
that were there fell a-dancing at once--those who went on two legs, and
those who went on four; both the dean and the parson, and the lawyer,
and the bailiff, and the sheriff; masters and men, dogs and swine, they
all danced and laughed and screeched at one another. Some danced till
they lay for dead; some danced till they fell into a swoon. It went
badly with all of them, but worst of all with the sheriff, for there he
stood bound to the birch, and he danced and scraped great bits off his
back against the trunk. There was not one of them who thought of doing
anything to little Freddy, and away he went with his fiddle and his gun,
just as he chose; and he lived merrily and happily all his days, for
there was no one who could say him 'Nay' to the first thing he asked
for."