“belongs to our master, and not to you. We pigs cannot go outside of the
fence to other places for food. Every day our master sends servants to
feed us and to clean our pen. In the summer they fill a pond with fresh
water for us to bathe in. We take your food only after you have
finished. It would spoil on the ground if we did not. Do our people ever
hurt your people? No, and yet each year some of our children are killed
by bad horses and cows.
[Illustration]
“Is it your belief that our master regards you more highly than us?
Consider a moment how he treats our people, and how he treats you. He
never makes us work as he does the horses and oxen. No, he gives us
plenty of food and lets us play and take our ease day in and day out the
whole year through. Surely that is because he likes us best. The horses
and oxen are at work constantly. Some pull wagons, others plough the
land, and they rarely are given any time to rest except at night.
“But our life is one of comfort and leisure. Observe how fat we are. You
never see our bones. Look at the old horses and the old oxen, and notice
how lean they are, and how their ribs show! And is it any wonder after
twenty years of work and no rest? I tell you our master does not honor
the horses and oxen as he does the pigs. That is all I have to say. Have
I not spoken the truth?”
The leader of the cows shook her head sadly, and said, “Moo, moo!”
The tired old horses groaned, “Huh, huh!” but could think of no reply to
the pig’s argument.
Then the cow leader said: “Why should we discuss things about which we
know nothing? We do not seem to understand our master. The meeting is
ended.”
On their way home the little pigs made a big noise, and each said
gleefully, “Wee, wee! We won, we won!”
The old horses and oxen discussed the subject among themselves, but they
arrived at no conclusion. “Certainly we are stronger, wiser, and more
useful than the pigs,” they said. “Why does our master treat us so?”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE SOLDIER AND THE DRAGON
THERE was once a young soldier who went far away from his home to fight
in a war. When the war was over and he returned, his father and mother
had died, and no one was left in the family but himself. His entire
inheritance was a cow and two sheep, and these he decided to sell.
“Then,” said he, “I will seek my fortune somewhere else, instead of
remaining here in poverty.”
The cow and the sheep were sold, and the soldier set out on his travels.
After walking for about a week, he one day found himself in a great
forest, and toward night he came to an old castle with the woods all
around it. The castle door was open, and he entered. Not a person was to
be seen, but on a long table was food enough ready for eating to serve a
score. The soldier stood a long time silently waiting in the hope that
the dwellers in the castle would appear and invite him to eat with them.
But he waited in vain. The castle seemed to be abandoned, and at last
the soldier said: “Upon my word, it is a shame to neglect this food any
longer. I may as well eat. Surely no one will greatly blame me for doing
so.”
He seated himself at the table, and though at first somewhat anxious,
ate and drank with a good appetite. By the time he finished, his
confidence was fully restored, and he went to look through the adjoining
rooms. In one he found heaps of rich merchandise, in another were many
bags and boxes of gold, silver, and jewels, while in a third the walls
were half hidden by a great array of guns.
“This castle is a robbers’ den,” said the soldier when he saw all this,
“and the robbers have gone off on some expedition. They will doubtless
soon return; but since I am here I will take possession of this treasure
and these guns, and drive the robbers away.”
He began to prepare the castle as well as he could to stand a siege.
After barricading the doors and windows, he loaded all the guns and sat
down to wait. Presently he heard the robbers coming, and he took his
place at a window that commanded the approach to the castle. Close at
hand he had set a large number of guns ready loaded, and he immediately
began to fire. The robbers were vastly astonished, and, though there
were fully twenty of them, they dropped the booty with which they were
laden and retired to shelter. But they reappeared shortly, and threw
themselves against the heavy door, raging and swearing. The door,
however, withstood their battering, and as the soldier killed or wounded
one of them at every shot, they in a short time ran off, carrying the
wounded with them, and were lost to sight in the forest.
“They will be back tomorrow, most likely, with reinforcements,” said the
soldier, and he strengthened his barricades and reloaded the guns he had
discharged.
It happened as he expected. At dawn the next day the robbers again
returned with a dozen others whom they had summoned to their aid. They
yelled, and fired their guns, and threw stones, and pounded the door
with heavy clubs. All the time the soldier was shooting from his window,
and in the end every robber was killed. The soldier was now in complete
possession of the castle and all the treasures it contained. He explored
it from top to bottom, and concluded to make it his home. In the days
that followed he often went forth into the forest to hunt, and the
castle and the life he led suited him very well. Thus things went on
until one day, when he was out with his gun, he took aim to shoot a fine
rabbit. Greatly to his surprise the rabbit spoke, saying: “Do not kill
me. I may perhaps be useful to you.”
“Very well,” said the soldier, “I will not harm you, and you can come
with me and be my servant.”
He went on followed by the rabbit, and in a little while he saw a bear.
He took careful aim and was about to shoot, when the bear said, “Do not
kill me, and I will make myself useful to you.”
“All right,” was the soldier’s response. “Follow me, and we will see in
what way you can serve me.”
The soldier at length returned to the castle, and the rabbit and bear
went with him. That evening, as they were in the great hall enjoying the
heat of the fire in the fireplace, the bear said: “I heard this morning
that the daughter of the king is about to be taken to a dragon which
will devour her. Would it not be well for us to go and deliver her?”
“That would be a very perilous undertaking,” said the soldier.
“Pshaw!” exclaimed the bear, “it is not as dangerous as you think. I am
ready to do my part.”
“Yes,” said the rabbit, “and I will do my part. All three of us ought to
be more than a match for one dragon.”
“Let us go then,” said the soldier.
The next morning he armed himself with a stout sword, and they started.
It was a long distance, and when the soldier tired of walking the bear
carried him on its back. At last they met a procession carrying the
princess to the dragon. Thousands of people were in the procession, and
they were all weeping. The soldier and his comrades went along with the
rest to the edge of a big, desolate plain. Then the people turned back
and left the princess to go on alone. The cavern of the dragon was in
the midst of the plain, and every month a maiden had to come to him to
be devoured. Otherwise, he would have devastated the whole kingdom. The
maidens were chosen by lot, and this time the lot had fallen on the
daughter of the king. Abandoned by all the world, she went slowly on,
wailing and shedding great tears.
Meanwhile the soldier was engaged in buying a handsome horse from one of
the returning citizens. As soon as he had secured it, he galloped after
the princess with the bear and the rabbit following him. When he
overtook her he said, “I pray you, dear lady, to mount behind me, and I
will carry you whither you are going.”
“Alas!” she responded, “I shall get there only too soon. I do not wish
to hasten to my death.”
“Confide in me,” said the soldier. “With the aid of my two companions,
whom you see here, I will save you from the monster.”
“I will do whatever you say,” the princess agreed, “though I have little
hope that you can save me.”
Then the soldier leaped to the ground, helped the princess on to the
horse’s back, remounted himself, and rode on toward the abode of the
dragon. The dragon heard them coming, and crawled out of its cave. “So
you are here at last, princess!” it snorted. “But I see you have
companions with you. The more the better, for I shall eat you and them,
too.”
Next the dragon addressed the soldier, and said: “Young man, I am all
ready. Throw me the princess.”
“If you want her, come and take her,” the soldier responded.
“Throw her to me,” ordered the dragon savagely, “or with my sharp teeth
I will make sausage meat of you in no time.”
“I’m not afraid of you,” retorted the soldier.
[Illustration:
THE BEAR AND RABBIT BEGIN THE ATTACK ON THE DRAGON
]
“Now we must all do our duty,” said the bear, in a low voice. “First,
let the lady slip off the horse and stand out of harm’s way. Then I will
clinch the monster from the front, and the rabbit shall run and nip its
tail, and while we are thus taking its attention, our master must gallop
forward and slash off its head.”
The princess alighted from the horse, and the bear dashed at the
dreadful creature and grappled with it. At the same time the rabbit ran
and worried it in the rear. Lastly, the soldier put spurs to his steed,
and joined in the attack. The dragon was too much engaged with the bear
and rabbit to defend itself from him, and with a tremendous blow of his
sword he cut off the beast’s head.
“Victory, victory!” cried the soldier and the princess.
But the assailants did not escape without injuries. The bear and rabbit
had their skins torn, and were much fatigued, and the soldier and the
princess were nearly overcome with the dragon’s sulphurous breath. In
order to have something to show to the king as a proof that the beast
had been vanquished, the soldier cut out the dragon’s tongue and put it
in a bag to carry along.
Evening was near, and they could journey no farther that day. Therefore,
they looked around, seeking some place that would afford shelter for the
night. The dragon’s cave was too foul, and it seemed necessary they
should sleep on the open plain. But the bear rolled together several
boulders in a half circle to keep off the wind, and in the protection of
these they all gathered to await the morning, except the horse, which
was tethered at a little remove. The rabbit served as a pillow for the
princess, and the bear curled down at her feet to keep her warm. Before
going to sleep they talked about the events of the day and their plans
for the future. One thing they settled then and there to the
satisfaction of all concerned, and this was that the soldier should
marry the princess.
It happened that a charcoal-burner, whose curiosity was keener than his
fear, ventured on to the plain in the late evening, hoping to learn the
fate of the princess. As he was prowling about he discovered the dragon
with its severed head, and presently he heard a sound of voices and
approached the group where the soldier and his friends had established
themselves. He hid behind a boulder and listened to the conversation and
determined to profit by it. When they were all fast asleep he stole
softly into the midst of the group, and cut off the soldier’s head. Then
he carried away the princess to his hut on the borders of the plain.
Afterward he returned and secured the head of the dragon.
In the morning he washed his hands and face, brushed his hair, put on
his best clothes, and took the princess to her father the king and said
he was the conqueror of the dragon. The king had promised his daughter
should marry the man, whoever he might be, that should deliver her from
the dreadful beast. So, after some consultation, the day following was
appointed for the wedding. But the princess protested that the
charcoal-burner was not her deliverer. However, as he had the head of
the dragon to show, no one paid much attention to what she said.
When the bear and the rabbit awoke after a long night’s sleep they were
much astonished to see that the princess was gone, and that their
master’s head was cut off. “How is it, bear,” said the rabbit, “that
with such things happening you did not awake?”
“I was very weary,” replied the bear, “and it seems you slept just as
soundly.”
“The first thing to be done,” said the rabbit, “is to put our master’s
head on his shoulders and bring him to life. Then we will search for the
princess. Luckily I know where to get some magic earth that will restore
our master, and I will go after it at once.”
The rabbit scurried off while the bear stood on guard. In time, the
rabbit returned with the magic earth. The bear fitted the soldier’s head
to his body, and the rabbit rubbed the magic earth on the wound.
Immediately the soldier was made whole, and he opened his eyes and sat
up. “Ah,” said he, “How well I have slept! I think from the look of the
sun it must now be afternoon. But where is the princess?”
They told him all that had occurred, and he was very much troubled. “You
need not worry,” said the rabbit; “we will find the princess soon, I
promise you.”
Without delay they set off to go to the royal city, and by night they
drew near the king’s palace and stopped in a small wood. “You two remain
here,” said the rabbit, “and I will find out what is happening in the
palace.”
The rabbit went on and crept into the palace, where he discovered that a
great feast was in progress celebrating the return of the princess. One
thing only marred the pleasure of those who participated, and that was
her persistence in saying that she did not want the charcoal-burner for
a husband, and that he was not her deliverer. The rabbit entered the
dining-hall. “Look, look! a rabbit!” cried the guests.
The servants hastened to pursue it, but it ran and dodged until it came
near where the princess sat. Then it suddenly sprang into her lap and
said in a low voice: “My master, who rescued you from the dragon, is not
far away. He loves you always.”
The princess was overjoyed. She caressed the rabbit, and was giving it
sweetmeats when the charcoal-burner began to shout, “Drive away the ugly
beast!”
“What harm has it done?” said the princess, protecting it with her arms.
“Drive it away quickly, I tell you,” the charcoal-burner continued. “It
is a sorcerer. Kill it!”
The servants approached armed with brooms and sticks, and the rabbit
took to flight and leaped lightly through the window.
Next day the wedding guests assembled, but just when everything was
ready for the ceremony the soldier, followed by the bear and the rabbit,
entered the palace. The guests at this sight were about to stampede to
safety, but the soldier raised his hand, and said, “Let no one attempt
to leave the hall, or he will have to deal with my friend here.”
So saying, he pulled the bear’s ear, and the bear growled threateningly.
Then the soldier turned to the king and asked: “Do you believe that it
was this ugly charcoal-burner who rescued your daughter from the dragon?
And are you willing to give him your daughter to be his wife?”
“I am a man of my word,” responded the king.
“Very well,” said the soldier, “but the charcoal-burner did not deliver
the princess from the monster. It was I, though I must add that I had
the help of these two friends, the bear and the rabbit.”
“But the charcoal-burner has given us proof we cannot doubt,” said the
king. “He brought with him the dragon’s head.”
“Let the head be produced, and I will prove to you that he is a fraud,”
said the soldier.
The king dispatched a servant to fetch the head, and when it had been
brought the soldier said: “Now open the dragon’s mouth. See if it has a
tongue.”
The servant opened the monster’s mouth. Sure enough, there was no
tongue.
“Why, how does that happen?” asked the king.
“I cut out the tongue immediately after I killed the beast,” explained
the soldier, “and here it is.”
From a bag he carried he shook the tongue out on a table.
“Yes,” cried the princess, “it is he who was my deliverer, and it is he
who shall be my husband.”
The charcoal-burner saw that everything was going against him, and he
slipped out of sight in the crowd and got away unobserved out of the
palace. When search was made for him he was not to be found. “Well,”
said the king, “I’m glad he is gone. It is a good riddance, and now let
us have the wedding.”
So the soldier married the princess, and the event was celebrated with
holidays and banquets throughout the kingdom.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE FAIRIES OF MERLIN’S CRAG
IN Scotland, long, long ago, there were two brothers named Donald and
John Gilray. They lived together in a little cottage and worked for a
farmer whose house was about a mile distant. One day the farmer sent
them to dig peat turf in a pasture near a wild, rocky bluff known as
Merlin’s Crag. After working for a considerable time, they saw coming
toward them from the crag a little woman about eighteen inches in
height, clad in a green gown, and wearing on her feet a pair of red
shoes.
She waved a cane she carried at the astonished laborers, and said: “How
would you like it if my husband was to come and take the roof off from
your house as you are taking it off from ours? I command you to put back
every turf exactly where you found it.”
Then she left them, and the two men, with fear and trembling, replaced
the turfs. That done, they went to their master, and told him what had
happened. The farmer only laughed at them. “You must have fallen asleep
up there on the moor when you ought to have been working,” said he; “and
you have had a bad dream to pay you for your neglect. Take a cart and
fetch home the turfs you have dug immediately.”
[Illustration]
The men went back with much reluctance; but nothing unusual happened
while they were in the pasture, and they loaded a cart and drove with it
to the farm. After they finished their day’s work and were passing
Merlin’s Crag on their way home in the dusk of evening, they saw streams
of brilliant light shining forth from innumerable crevices in the black
rocks. They stopped and gazed. “Come,” said John, “let’s go and find out
what this is all about. Many’s the time we’ve passed here, and we’ve
never seen anything like that before.”
“No,” said Donald, “we’re safer to keep to the highway.”
But John would not be satisfied with that, and he moved toward the
lighted crag, and Donald followed. As they drew near they were charmed
by the most exquisite fiddling they had ever heard. By searching they
found an opening in the rocks something like a rude window, and they
looked in and saw a company of fairies engaged in a merry dance. Among
the rest was the little old woman who had spoken to them on the peat
bog. John was so overpowered by the enchanting jigs the fiddler was
playing that he proposed they should go inside the crag and join in the
fun.
“We should never be able to get away,” declared Donald. “I am as fond of
dancing as anyone, but nothing would tempt me to dance in that company.”
However, John was more adventurous than his brother, and every new jig
that was played, and every new reel that was danced inspired him with
additional ardor. At last he could restrain himself no longer, and he
leaped through the window into the midst of the dancers.
“Welcome!” cried the old fairy woman, and she held out her hands to him,
and off they went in a mad whirl.
“He is there for no good,” said Donald, who still stood at the window.
“What can I do?”
After thinking the situation over he began to shout remonstrances to his
brother and to beg him to come out. But neither the fairies nor John
would pause in their reel, and they only waved their hands, beckoning
him to join them. There Donald stayed shouting to his brother until he
heard a cock crow at his master’s farm. Immediately the lights flashed
out, the music ceased and he was alone on the side of the wild crag.
He went back to the farm and told the melancholy tale of poor John’s
fate. This was soon the talk of all the countryside, and it was
generally agreed that John was lost forever. But one old man who was
very wise in fairy lore came to Donald and unfolded a plan for
accomplishing his brother’s rescue. “Make a little cross out of the wood
of the rowan tree,” said he, “and carry it in your pocket, and the
fairies will have no power over you. Then be sure to pass Merlin’s Crag
every evening, and when you see it lighted, enter it boldly and claim
your brother. If he refuses to go with you, seize him and carry him off
by force. You need not be afraid, for as long as you have the rowan
cross in your pocket the fairies will not dare to interfere with you.”
Donald was not so sure about his safety as the old man was, but he was
willing to risk much to effect his brother’s rescue. So he agreed to try
the experiment, whatever the result might be. He made the rowan cross
and carried it in his pocket, and every evening he passed Merlin’s Crag
watching for the lights. But the crag was perfectly dark until just a
year after the day when the brothers first saw the fairies. That evening
Donald saw the lights glimmering from the crevices of the rocks, and he
at once left the road and climbed up till he found the very window that
he had looked through a twelve-month previous.
There was the same scene within of merry dancers, and the music was just
as stirring and delightful. In the midst of the dancers was John Gilray
whirling about with the little old fairy, exactly as his brother had
last seen him. Donald crept through the window and advanced with
trembling footsteps. His courage returned as he went on, and presently
he made a sudden dash in among the dancers and seized his brother by the
collar.
“You must come with me,” said he.
“Yes, yes,” said John, “I’ll come, and you need not handle me so
roughly. But first let me finish this dance. What is your hurry anyhow?
I haven’t been here a half hour yet!”
“A half hour!” exclaimed Donald. “You have been here a whole year.”
John refused to believe this, but Donald dragged him away and got him
outside. The little old fairy woman looked forth at them through the
window. “Good-by,” she said, waving her hand to John. “We have had you
here a whole year, a prisoner in our dance. That is your punishment for
taking the roof off our house. But the grass has again grown green on
the spot where you removed the turf, and the roof is nearly as good as
ever. So you can go if you choose, but I warn you not to be digging your
turf there again.”
She waved her hand once more, and suddenly the lights were gone, and the
rocks of Merlin’s Crag were as black and solid as ever. It was now
midnight, and the two brothers went home rejoicing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE LITTLE BOY AND THE BIG COW
ONCE upon a time there was a little boy who had a big cow, and he fed
her and took good care of her and milked her twice a day. Everything
went on very well until one morning he went out to milk her, and said:
“Hold still, my cow, my dearie,
And fill my bucket with milk,
And if you’ll not be contrary
I’ll give you a gown of silk.”
But the cow wouldn’t stand still. “Look at that, now!” said the little
boy. “What am I to do with such a contrary cow?”
So off he went to his mother at the house. “Mother,” said he, “the cow
won’t stand still, and I can’t milk her.”
“Well,” said his mother, “go to the cow, and tell her there’s a weary,
weary lady with long yellow hair sits weeping for a sup of milk.”
Back he ran to the cow and repeated to her his mother’s words, but the
cow wouldn’t stand still. Then he went to the house again and told his
mother.
[Illustration]
“Well,” said his mother, “tell the cow there’s a fine, fine laddie from
the wars beside the weary, weary lady with golden hair, who is weeping
for a sup of milk.”
Off he went and repeated to the cow his mother’s words, but she wouldn’t
stand still, and he hurried to the house and told his mother.
“Well,” said his mother, “tell the cow there’s a sharp, sharp sword at
the belt of the fine, fine laddie from the wars, who is beside the
weary, weary lady with golden hair, who sits weeping for a sup of milk.”
He told the cow, but she wouldn’t stand still, and once more he came to
the house to advise with his mother.
“Run quick,” said she, “and tell the cow that her head is going to be
cut off by the sharp, sharp sword in the hands of the fine, fine laddie
from the wars, if she doesn’t give the sup of milk for which the weary,
weary lady weeps.”