got weary, and then he sat down to rest; but he had scarcely sat down
when a third beggarman came to him. This one 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.
[Illustration: The lad had to look up, right up into the sky]
"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 you for a penny."
"Oh dear, oh dear!" 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 beggarman would have one penny, 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
merry and glad 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 you may have," said the beggarman, "but it is 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 you may have," said the beggarman, "but it is a sorry wish too.
You must wish better for the last penny."
"I have always had a longing to be in company with folks 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 is not so sorry," said the beggarman; and off he strode
between the hills, and Freddy saw him no more.
So the lad lay down to sleep, and the next day he came down from the
mountain with his fiddle and his gun. First he went to the storekeeper
and asked for clothes. Next at a farm he asked for a horse, and at a
second for a sleigh; and at another place he asked for a fur coat. No
one said him "Nay"--even the stingiest folk 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 sleigh. When he had gone a bit he
met the sheriff whose servant he had been.
"Good day, master," said Little Freddy, as he pulled up and took off his
hat.
"Good day," said the sheriff, "but when was I ever your master?"
"Oh yes," said Little Freddy, "don't you remember how I served you three
years for three pence?"
"My goodness, now!" said the sheriff, "you have grown rich in a hurry,
and pray, how was it that you got to be such a fine gentleman?"
"Oh, that is a long story," said Little Freddy.
"And are you so 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 will you give me if
I hit it as we stand here?"
"Well," said the sheriff, and he laughed when he said it, "I'll give you
all the money I have in my pocket, and I'll go and fetch it when it
falls," 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 bramble after it, and he
picked it up and held it up high for the lad to see. But just then
Little Freddy began to play 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."
But first the sheriff had to pay him all the money that he had in his
pocket.
So when the lad came to town he turned into an inn, and there he began
to play, and all who came danced and laughed and were merry, and so the
lad lived without any care, for all the folks liked him and no one would
say "Nay" to anything he asked.
But one evening 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. The people would
hear of nothing 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 and they danced and they laughed till they gasped for breath.
So soldiers and the guard were sent to take him, but it was no better
with them than with the watchmen. When Little Freddy played his fiddle,
they were all bound to dance; and dance as 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. Now that they had caught him they could condemn him 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 too was there. He was glad to get even at last for the money
and the clothes he had lost, and to see the lad hanged with his own
eyes.
And here came Little Freddy, carrying his fiddle and his gun. Slowly he
mounted the steps of the gallows,--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 say "Nay" to what he asked.
But the sheriff begged them not to let him have leave to touch a string,
else it would be all over with them altogether. If the lad leave, he
begged them to bind him to the birch that stood there.
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, the lawyer and the
sheriff, masters and men, dogs and pigs--they all danced and laughed and
barked and squealed at one another. Some danced till they lay down and
gasped, some danced till they fell in 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 till he scraped the clothes off his back. I dare
say it was a sorry looking sight and a sore back.
But there was not one of them who thought of doing anything to Little
Freddy, and away he went with his fiddle and his gun, whither he chose,
and he lived merrily and happily all his days, for there was no one who
could say "Nay" to the first thing he asked for.