the palace kitchen to see a daughter who worked there. One day she
noticed a bright feather in a crack of the hearth. She poked it out with
her knitting-needle, and carried it home and put it on a rafter. The
next time she went to the palace, the bird’s feather leaped down from
the rafter, shivered a little, and then turned into a lovely damsel.
This damsel tidied the room, cooked dinner and set it on the table, and
afterward became a feather and leaped back to the rafter. When the old
woman came home she was greatly astonished at what she saw, and she
searched the house backward and forward to see if she could discover the
person who had been helping her, but no one could she find.
It was the same the next time she went to the palace—the feather became
a damsel and did all the household work. “I really must find out the
secret of this,” thought the old woman when she returned.
So the following morning she went out as if she were going away, but
left the door ajar and hid where she could peep through a crack. Soon
she perceived there was a damsel in the room putting things in order and
cooking the dinner. Then in she dashed and seized hold of her. “Who are
you?” she demanded, “and whence do you come?”
The damsel told her sad story, and the old woman said: “Distress
yourself no more, my lass. I’ll put your affairs to rights this very
day.”
Then off she went to the palace and invited the prince to call on her
that evening. He was now so tired of the black damsel that he was glad
of any excuse to get away from her, and the evening found him punctually
at the old woman’s. They sat down to supper, and presently the damsel
brought in the coffee. When the sultan’s son saw her he nearly fainted.
As soon as he recovered himself a little, and the maiden had left the
room, he turned to the old woman and asked, “Who is that damsel?”
“She is the orange fairy,” replied the old woman.
“I thought she could be no other!” he exclaimed, and he rose from the
table and ran to where the damsel was and took her in his arms.
Presently they went to the palace together, and the instant the black
slave girl caught sight of them she knew her perfidy had been
discovered, and she fled from the palace, never to return. Not long
afterward the prince married his beloved, and there was rejoicing
throughout the realm. So they at last had the desire of their hearts,
and may you have your desire also.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE MYSTERIOUS VOICE
ONCE upon a time there was a man who above all other things desired to
accumulate wealth. Day and night he thought of nothing else. Fortune
favored him, and as time went on he acquired more and more property
until he became very rich. Now that he had so much to lose he thought it
would be a terrible thing to die and leave all his possessions behind.
So he made up his mind to seek a land where there was no death.
He got ready for the journey, took leave of his wife, and started.
Whenever he came to a new country the first question he asked was
whether people died in that land. If he was told that they did, he
continued on his quest. However, he at last reached a country where they
said the people did not even know the meaning of the word death. The
traveler was delighted to hear this. “But surely,” said he, “there must
be great numbers of inhabitants in your land if no one ever dies.”
“No more than in most lands,” they responded; “for we would have you
know that from time to time a voice is heard calling to this one or
that, and whoever is called always goes away and never comes back.”
The man was amazed that the people should be so stupid as to follow the
voice when they knew that if they obeyed its summons they would never
return. He journeyed back to his home, got all his possessions together,
and went with his wealth and his wife and children to dwell in the
country where the people did not die. To be sure they disappeared one
after the other in response to the call of that mysterious voice; but he
made up his mind that when he or any of his family heard the voice they
would pay no heed to it, however loud its appeal.
After they were settled in their new home and had put everything in
order, he warned his wife and children that they must on no account
listen to or obey a strange voice they might some day hear calling them.
For several years everything went well with them and they lived happily
in their new home. But one day when they were all sitting together
around the dining-table the man’s wife suddenly started up, exclaiming:
“I am coming! I am coming!”
She looked around the room for her fur coat, and she had picked it up
and was putting it on, when her husband took firm hold of her hand and
restrained her, saying: “Don’t you remember what I told you? If you have
heard a voice calling to you, stay where you are unless you wish never
to return.”
“But I am merely going to see why I am wanted,” she said. “I shall soon
come back.”
She struggled to get away and to go where the voice summoned, but he
would not release her, and he ordered the servants to shut and bolt all
the doors. Then she sank into a chair and said: “I see you will not let
me go.”
So her husband thought she was resigned to staying, and that she had
gotten over her mad impulse to obey the voice. But no sooner did he
loose his hold on her hand and turn away than she sprang to her feet,
made a sudden dash to a door, unbolted and opened it, and darted out. He
followed her and contrived to grasp her fur coat. Thus he was able to
restrain her while he implored her not to go, and told her she certainly
would never return. She made no reply, but let her arms fall backward,
and suddenly slipped out of the coat and left it in her husband’s hands.
The poor man seemed turned to stone, without power to move, as he gazed
after her hurrying away from him, and listened to her calling as she
ran: “I am coming! I am coming!”
When she was quite out of sight he went into the house, saying: “If she
is so foolish as to wish to leave us forever, I cannot help it. I warned
and implored her to pay no heed to that voice, however loudly it might
call.”
The rest of the family lived peacefully after this for a number of
years. But at last the man was one day at the barber’s being shaved. The
shop was full of people, and his chin had been covered with lather.
Suddenly he started up from his chair and called out in a loud voice: “I
won’t come! Do you hear? I won’t come!”
The barber and the other people in the shop listened to him with
astonishment. Again he looked toward the door, and exclaimed, “I tell
you once for all that I do not mean to come; so go away!”
A few minutes later he shouted: “Go away or it will be the worse for
you. You may call as much as you like, but you will not get me to come.”
He grew as angry as if some one was actually standing at the door
tormenting him. Finally he got up and said to the barber: “Give me the
razor you are using. I’ll teach that fellow to leave people alone for
the future.”
He snatched the razor out of the barber’s hand and rushed forth from the
shop as if he were running after some one. The barber did not wish to
lose his razor, and he pursued the man to rescue it. They both continued
at full speed out of the town until they came to the edge of a
precipice. Down this the man plunged head foremost, and he never was
seen again. So he, too, like the others, had been forced, against his
will, to follow the voice that called him.
[Illustration]
The barber went home congratulating himself that he had escaped the fate
of the man he had pursued. He told what had happened, and it was noised
abroad that the people who had gone away and never returned had all
fallen down that precipice. Hitherto it had not been known where they
went, when they heard the voice and obeyed its call. Crowds of people
came to examine the fateful precipice where such numbers had
disappeared. Yet they could discover no clue as to what had finally
become of the missing ones, for they could see nothing beyond the
declivity but a vast plain that looked as if it had been there from the
beginning of the world.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
JOHNNY GLOKE
JOHNNY GLOKE was a tailor by trade; but he was a man of too much spirit
to continue to be a tailor all his days. In fact, he was fonder of
basking idly in the sun than of plying the needle and scissors. As time
went on he grew more and more discontented, and the desire to follow
some other path that would lead to honor and fame finally induced him to
swear that he would do tailoring no longer. From its resting-place on
the wall of his workroom he took down a rusty old sword that had
belonged to some of his ancestors, and set out in search of adventures.
After traveling a long way, he came to a country that was much troubled
by two giants, whom no one was bold enough to encounter, or strong
enough to overcome. He soon learned that the king had offered a great
reward and the hand of his daughter in marriage to the man who should
rid his kingdom of this scourge. Johnny’s ardor was roused to attempt
the deed, and he offered himself for the service.
The common haunt of the giants was a certain wood, and Johnny set out
with his old sword to perform the task of vanquishing them. When he
reached the wood, he lay down to think and contrive some plan of action
by which he could gain an advantage over the giants, for he knew he was
far too weak to combat them unless circumstances favored him. While he
was still thinking, he saw them coming with a wagon to get wood for
fuel, and the sight of them sent the cold shivers down his spine, they
were so big and had such huge, shaggy heads and tusk-like teeth.
Johnny sought safety by hiding in a hollow tree. Presently he recovered
sufficiently from his alarm to peep out and watch the two at work; and
as he watched them a method of getting the better of them occurred to
him. He picked up a pebble and threw it so it struck one of the giants a
sharp blow on the forehead. The giant, smarting with the pain, turned on
his companion, and in strong words blamed him for the blow. The other
angrily denied that he had thrown the pebble.
Johnny kept quiet, but as soon as the giants, still grumbling at each
other, resumed work, he let fly another pebble. It hit the same giant
who had been hit before, and the fellow assailed his companion in fury,
and they belabored each other till they were utterly tired out. Then
they sat down on a log to breathe and rest themselves.
“Well,” said one of them, “all the king’s army has not been able to get
the better of us hitherto, but I fancy that an old woman with a broom
would be too much for us now.”
“If that is so,” shouted the former tailor, springing bold as a lion
from his hiding-place, “what do you say to being attacked by Johnny
Gloke with his old rusty sword?”
Before they could recover from the astonishment occasioned by his words
and sudden appearance he had run to where they were, and in a twinkling
he cut off their heads. That done, he went out of the wood and sought
the king, who, as soon as he was satisfied that Johnny had killed the
giants, gave him the princess in marriage.
For a time he lived in peace and happiness, and as he did not tell by
what method he had overcome the giants, he was considered a man of great
prowess and valor. At length a rebellion broke out among the subjects of
his father-in-law, and such was Johnny’s reputation that he was promptly
chosen as the proper person to quell the uprising. His heart sank within
him, but he could not refuse and so lose his great name. So he told the
servants to fetch a horse for him to mount, and they brought the
fiercest steed that ever saw the sun, and he set forth on his desperate
task. He was not accustomed to ride on horseback, and he soon lost all
control of the fiery creature he bestrode. Away it galloped at full
speed in the direction of the rebel army.
[Illustration]
In its wild career it passed under a gallows that stood by the wayside.
The gallows was old and frail, and it had so rotted away at the base
that it leaned over the road almost ready to fall. Johnny came into
collision with it, and it broke off and lodged squarely on the horse’s
neck. On rushed the horse at furious speed, carrying both Johnny and the
gallows toward the king’s enemies. When the rebels saw the horse with
its strange burden dashing toward them they were seized with terror, and
cried one to another: “There comes Johnny Gloke, who unaided killed two
giants at the same time. Now he is going to assail us, and is bringing a
gallows on his horse’s neck to hang us all.”
Then they scattered and fled in dismay, and never stopped till they
reached their homes. Thus was Johnny Gloke a second time victorious. So
when the old king died every one rejoiced to have Johnny become the
ruler of the kingdom, and he reigned long and well.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
HANS THE HEDGEHOG
ONCE there was a rich farmer who had an only son named Hans, and from
his waist upward the boy was like a hedgehog. He was intelligent, and
could talk like any other boy, but of course he could not be treated as
if he was entirely human. For one thing, he was not allowed to sleep in
a bed on account of his prickles. Instead, they shook down some straw
for him behind the stove, and there he spent most of his time until he
was eight years old. Then the farmer was one day going to a fair that
was to be held in a neighboring town. He asked his wife what he should
buy for her, and she said, “Some meat, and a couple of loaves of bread
for the house.”
Then he asked the servant maid what she wanted, and she replied, “A pair
of slippers and some stockings.”
Lastly he said, “Well, Hans my Hedgehog, and what shall I bring you?”
“Daddy,” said Hans, “please bring me some bagpipes.”
When the farmer returned home he gave his wife and the maid the things
they had asked for, and then he went behind the stove and gave Hans the
Hedgehog the bagpipes.
As soon as Hans received this gift he said: “Daddy, tomorrow morning I
wish you would take our largest rooster to the harness-maker and have
him fitted with a bridle. I want to use him for my horse.”
So the next day the farmer had a harness made for the biggest rooster on
the farm. Then Hans the Hedgehog mounted on the rooster’s back and rode
away to the forest. There he made the rooster fly up to the top of a
lofty tree with him.
For several years he dwelt, there in the greenwood, and most of the time
he stayed high among the branches of that tall tree. Meanwhile his
father knew nothing of what had become of him.
As he sat on the rooster’s back in the tree-top he played on his
bagpipes and made beautiful music. Once a king who had lost his way in
the forest came riding near enough to hear him. He was much surprised,
and sent a servant to find out whence the music came. The man peered
about, but saw only what seemed to be a rooster perched high in a tree
with a hedgehog on his back, and this hedgehog was apparently playing
some bagpipes.
The king told the servant to ask the strange creature why he sat there,
and also to ask if he could direct him how to find the way back to his
kingdom.
When the servant put these questions, Hans the Hedgehog came down from
the tree and said he would show the way if the king would give him his
written promise to let him have whatever his Royal Highness first met as
he approached his castle on his return.
The king thought: “This hedgehog probably does not know one word from
another. I can write what I please.”
So he took pen and ink, wrote something, and then Hans the Hedgehog
showed him the road, and he got safely home. His daughter saw him coming
while he was still at a distance, and she ran to meet him and threw her
arms about him. Then he remembered Hans the Hedgehog, and told her what
had happened in the forest, and how he had been required to give a
written promise to bestow whatever he first met as he approached his
palace to an extraordinary creature which had shown him the way. “The
upper half of the creature was like a hedgehog,” said the king, “and he
rode on a rooster just as if the rooster had been a horse, and he had
bagpipes and made lovely music. But he certainly could not read, and I
wrote that I would not give him anything at all.”
[Illustration:
Hans rode away to the forest
]
Thereupon the princess was quite pleased. “You managed very cleverly,”
said she, “for of course you could not have allowed me to be carried off
by such a hobgoblin.”
Hans continued to dwell in the forest, and he was very merry sitting in
his tree and blowing his bagpipes. Presently it happened that another
king who was traveling through the forest with his servants and
courtiers lost his way, for the forest was very large. He came near
enough to the resort of Hans the Hedgehog to hear the music, and he said
to one of his men, “Go at once and find out what that is.”
So the servant went under the tall tree, and he looked up and saw Hans
the Hedgehog perched on the rooster, and asked what he was doing up
there.
“I’m playing my bagpipes,” was the reply.
Then the servant told him that the king, his master, was not able to
find the way out of the forest back to his kingdom. So Hans the Hedgehog
descended from the tree with his rooster and went to the king and
offered to show him the right way if he would solemnly promise to give
him whatever he should meet first in front of his palace.
To this the king agreed, and he gave Hans a written promise to that
effect. Then Hans rode on in front and showed him the way, and the king
speedily arrived safely in his own kingdom. There was great rejoicing in
the palace when he was seen returning, and his only daughter, who was
very beautiful, ran to meet him, and she embraced and kissed him, full
of delight that her father had come home. She inquired where he had been
so long, and he told her how he had lost his way in the forest and might
never have gotten back if he had not been helped by a strange creature,
half man and half hedgehog, which rode on a rooster and when discovered
was in a tree-top seated on the rooster’s back making music with some
bagpipes. “My only trouble now,” said the king, “is that I had to
promise to give the creature the first thing which met me in front of my
palace. I feel very sad, because it is you who first met me.”
“Never mind,” said the princess. “Perhaps he will never come for me; but
if he does, for your sake, I will go with him.”
After a time Hans decided to leave the forest and visit the two kings
whom he helped to find their way back to their kingdoms. But the first
king had given strict orders that if any one came into his domains
riding on a rooster and carrying some bagpipes he should be chased away,
and, if need be, shot, or hacked to pieces with swords. On no account
was he to be allowed to enter the palace. When, therefore, Hans the
Hedgehog drew near to the palace, the guards charged on him with their
bayonets, but he put spurs to his rooster and flew up over the gate
right to one of the king’s windows. He alighted on a balcony and called
out that if he was not given what he had been promised, the king and his
daughter should be punished for their treachery.
So the frightened king said everything should be done as Hans the
Hedgehog wished. He ordered a carriage to be made ready drawn by six
white horses, and attended by servants in gorgeous liveries. The
princess stepped into it, and Hans the Hedgehog with his rooster and
bagpipes took his place beside her. Then they drove away, but they had
not gone far out of the city when Hans pulled the princess’s shawl off
and pricked her with his quills, saying: “That is your reward for
falsehood. Go back home. I will have nothing more to do with you.”
Then the coach returned with her, and Hans the Hedgehog rode away on his
rooster to the other kingdom. When he entered the royal city, the
guards, in accord with the king’s orders, presented arms, the people
cheered, and he was conducted in triumph to the palace. At sight of
Hans, the princess was a good deal startled, for he certainly was very
peculiar looking, but he told her no harm would befall her and she need
not be alarmed. So she made him welcome, and he sat next to her at the
royal table, and they ate and drank together.
Late in the evening Hans had a big fire made in his chamber, and at his
request four trusty men were ordered to stand on guard at his door.
About eleven o’clock, when he went to his room, he said to the guards,
“Never in my life have I slept in a bed, and before I get into the one
prepared for me here I shall creep out of my hedgehog skin and leave it
lying on the floor. Ten minutes from now you four men must come in and
throw the skin into the fire, and stand by till it is entirely
consumed.”
Hans entered the room, took off his hedgehog skin, and got into bed.
Soon afterward the four men came in, threw the skin into the fire, and
watched it burn till there was nothing left of it. Hans was now wholly
human in his form, but the guards, when they looked at him, were
dismayed to find that he was quite black, as though he had been severely
scorched. They informed the king, and he at once summoned a physician.
The latter, by the use of various salves and ointments, made Hans’ skin
white, and the youth became as handsome as he was clever. When the cure
was complete the king’s daughter was greatly pleased, and not long
afterward they were married, and when the old king died Hans ruled the
kingdom in his stead.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE MAGPIE’S NEST
ONCE upon a time
When pigs spoke rhyme,
all the birds of the air came to the magpie and asked her to teach them
how to build nests; for the magpie was very clever. So she had them
gather around her and began to show them how to do it. First of all she
took some mud and made a sort of a round cake with it.
[Illustration]
“Oh, that’s how it’s done!” said the thrush, and away she flew, and the
thrush has built her nests out of mud ever since.
Then the magpie took some twigs and arranged them around in the mud.
“Now I know all about it,” said the blackbird. So off she flew, and the
blackbirds make their nests of mud and sticks to this very day.
Then the magpie put another layer of mud over the twigs.
“Oh, that’s quite plain!” said the owl, and away she flew, and owls have
made their nests after that manner ever since.
Next the magpie took some twigs and twined them around the outside.
“The very thing!” exclaimed the sparrow, and off she went, and the
sparrows to this day make rather slovenly nests.
Then Madge Magpie took some feathers and other bits of soft material and
lined the nest very nicely with it.
“That suits me!” cried the starling, and away she flew, and ever since
then the starlings have built very comfortable nests.
The magpie kept on with her work, but the birds were constantly leaving
before she had finished, each thinking she knew all there was to know
about nest-building. At last the only bird that remained was the
turtle-dove. She now began to repeat her silly cry, “Take two, Taffy,
take two-o-o!”
The magpie was just putting a twig across, and she said, “No, one is
enough.”
But the turtle-dove kept on saying, “Take two, Taffy, take two-o-o!”
That made the magpie angry, and she exclaimed, “One’s enough, I tell
you!”
Still the turtle-dove cried, “Take two, Taffy, take two-o-o!”
At this the magpie became so disturbed that she flew away, and always
afterward, when the birds asked her how to build their nests, she
refused to tell them. That is why different birds build their nests
differently.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUSS IN BOOTS
ONCE upon a time there was a poor miller who had three sons, and when he
died he had nothing to leave them except his mill, a donkey, and a cat.
The division was quickly made without the help of either lawyer or
judge. The eldest son took the mill, and the second took the donkey. So
there was nothing left for the youngest but the cat, and the poor fellow
could not help feeling that he had been treated shabbily. “My brothers
will be able to earn a comfortable livelihood,” he sighed, “but as for
me, though Puss may feed himself by catching mice, he can’t feed me, and
I shall certainly die of hunger.”