She carried him home, and the first thing in the morning hastened with
loud cries to the lad’s father. “Your son has brought a great misfortune
on us,” she said. “He has thrown my husband downstairs and broken his
leg. Take the good-for-nothing wretch away out of our house.”
The father was horrified. He went back with her and gave the lad a good
scolding. “What is the meaning of this inhuman prank?” he said. “The
evil one must have put it into your head.”
“Father,” responded the lad, “I am quite innocent. He stood there in the
dark like a man with some wicked purpose. I did not know who he was, and
I warned him three times to speak or to go away.”
“Alas!” said his father, “you bring me nothing but disaster. Get out of
my sight. I will have nothing more to do with you.”
“To travel elsewhere is just what I wish,” said the lad, “for I hope
that will lead to my learning how to shiver and shake. I want at least
to have that accomplishment to my credit.”
“Learn what you like,” said his father. “It’s all the same to me. Here
are fifty silver pieces for you. Go out into the world, but tell no one
whence you come, or who your father is, for you would only bring me to
shame.”
“Just as you please, father,” said the lad. “If that is all you want I
can easily fulfil your desire.”
So the lad put his fifty silver pieces into his pocket and betook
himself to the highroad. As he tramped along he said over and over, “Oh
that I could learn to shiver! Oh that I could learn to shake!”
A man overtook him and heard the words he was saying. They went on
together till they came to a gallows whereon seven men were hanging.
“Sit down here,” said the man, “and when night comes you will learn to
shiver and shake.”
“If nothing more than that is needed,” said the lad, “I shall be well
pleased; and I promise you, in case I learn to shiver so speedily, that
you shall have the fifty silver pieces now in my pocket. Come back to me
early tomorrow morning.”
Then the lad sat down beside the gallows. It grew cold after sundown,
and a sharp wind blew and made the bodies on the gallows swing back and
forth with a dismal creaking of the ropes by which they were suspended.
“Poor fellows!” said the lad, “I am none too warm down here in a
sheltered nook on the ground, and you must have a chilly time of it up
aloft there.”
Then he curled up and went to sleep. Next morning the man who had been
his companion on the day before came and said, “Well, I suppose you know
now what shivering means.”
“No,” said the lad, “how could I learn it? Those fellows on the gallows
never opened their mouths.”
The man saw that he would get no silver pieces, and he went away,
saying, “Never before in my life did I meet such a person as that.”
Soon afterward the lad resumed his travels, and again began saying to
himself: “Oh that I could learn to shiver! Oh that I could learn to
shake!”
A carter, who chanced to be on the road, heard his plaint, and asked,
“Who are you?”
“I don’t know,” said the youth.
“Who is your father?” the carter questioned.
“That I must not say,” was the lad’s response.
“What is it you are grumbling about to yourself as you walk along?” the
carter inquired.
“Ah,” said the youth, “I wish to learn what shivering is, but no one can
teach me.”
“Nonsense!” said the carter. “Just you come with me and I’ll see that
your desire is gratified.”
So the youth went with the carter, and in the evening they reached an
inn and arranged to stay there for the night. “Oh that I could learn to
shiver! Oh that I could learn to shake!” sighed the youth as he sat down
to wait for supper.
The landlord laughed, and said, “If that’s what you want, you can have
plenty of opportunity for learning here.”
“Hold your tongue,” said the landlady. “Many an imprudent fellow has
paid the penalty for his curiosity with his life already. It would be a
sin and a shame not to have this stranger’s bright eyes see the light of
day again.”
But the youth said: “However difficult it may be to learn what shivering
is, the lesson is one I am eager to learn. I left my home to seek such
knowledge.”
He would not be put off with evasions, and at last the landlord told him
that not far distant stood an enchanted castle, and that any one who
stayed there over night would surely learn to shiver. Moreover, the king
had promised his daughter in marriage to the man who would spend three
nights in the castle, and every one said she was the most beautiful
young lady the sun ever shone on. Such a vigil would break the spell
that was on the castle, and he who accomplished this would become master
of a great treasure hidden there and guarded by evil spirits. But many,
aspiring to win the princess and the treasure and the renown, had gone
into the castle, and not one had ever come out.
The next morning the youth went to the king, and said, “By your leave, I
would like to pass three nights in the enchanted castle.”
His request was granted, though with some reluctance, for the king took
a fancy to the lad, and was sorry to think of his probable fate.
When night came, the youth went to the castle, made a bright fire in one
of the rooms, and sat down beside it. “Oh, if I could only shiver!” said
he, “but I doubt if I can learn how even here.”
At midnight he got up from where he was sitting and freshened the fire.
Suddenly some creatures in a corner of the room began to shriek, “Mew,
mew! how cold we are!”
“Simpletons!” he exclaimed, “what are you screeching for? If you are
cold, come and warm yourselves by the fire.”
Immediately two big black cats sprang forth from the gloomy corner and
sat down one on each side of him. They stared at him with wild, fiery
eyes until they had warmed themselves, and then said, “Comrade, shall we
have a game of cards?”
“Certainly,” he replied, “but show me your paws first.”
They each lifted a front foot and stretched out their claws.
“Why,” said he, “what long nails you’ve got! Wait a bit. I must cut them
for you.”
He picked up a sword he had brought with him, but instead of cutting
their nails he seized each cat in turn by the scruff of the neck and
killed it by thrusting his sword through its body. That done, he dragged
them to a window and heaved them out. But no sooner had he got rid of
these cats and was about to sit down by his fire again than crowds of
dogs, all jet black, swarmed out of every nook and corner of the room.
They howled horribly and trampled on his fire, and tried to put it out.
For a time he looked quietly on, but at last he got angry, took up his
sword, and cried, “You rascally pack, away with you!” and he let fly
among them right and left. Some of them escaped, and the rest he struck
dead and threw out of the window.
When he finished, he returned to the fire, scraped the embers together,
and set it to blazing. At the far side of the room was a big bed, and he
went and lay down on it, intending to sleep the remainder of the night.
But just as he was closing his eyes the bed began to move. It crossed
the room, went out at a door, and soon was tearing round and round the
castle. “Very good,” he said, “the faster the better!”
[Illustration]
The bed careered along as if it were drawn by six horses. Sometimes it
was in the castle, sometimes outside, and the way it jolted over the
thresholds and jigged up and down the stairs was very surprising, to say
the least. Suddenly it went hop, hop, hop, with more violence than ever,
and turned topsy-turvy so that it lay on the lad like a mountain. But he
pitched the pillows and blankets into the air, and soon he had
disencumbered himself and got on his feet. “Now some one else may ride,”
said he, and he made his way back to his fire and lay down on the hearth
and went to sleep.
In the morning the king came to the castle and found the youth stretched
out on the floor. He thought the ghosts had killed him, and he said, “It
is a pity that such a vigorous, handsome fellow should thus perish.”
But the youth heard him and sat up, saying, “It has not come to that
yet.”
The king was much surprised, and asked him how he had fared.
“Very well,” he answered. “One night is gone, and I expect to get safely
through the others.”
Presently he returned to the inn. The landlord opened his eyes when he
saw him, and said: “I never thought to behold you alive again. Have you
learned how to shiver yet?”
“No,” replied the lad, “it’s all in vain.”
The second night he went again to the castle, started a fire, and sat
down by it and began his old song, “Oh if I could only learn to shiver!”
At midnight he commenced to hear a ringing, rattling noise, first soft,
but increasing till there was a great uproar. Then there was a sudden
silence. At last, with a loud scream, half a man’s body came tumbling
down the chimney and rolled out on the floor in front of the lad.
“Hello!” he said, “here is only half a man. This is not enough.”
The rattling and ringing were renewed, and soon, amidst shrieks and
howls, the other half fell down.
“Wait a moment,” said the youth, “and I’ll poke up the fire.”
When this was done, and he looked around, the two halves had joined
themselves together, and a hideous man sat on the bench. “We didn’t
bargain for that,” said the lad. “The bench is mine.”
He went to sit down, and the man tried to push him out of the way. Then
the youth became angry and flung the man aside and sat down in his usual
seat. Presently more men fell down the chimney, one after the other, and
they fetched with them nine thigh bones and two skulls, and began to
play skittles. The youth felt inclined to join in the sport, and he
called out, “I say, can I play too?”
“Certainly,” said they.
“Then here goes!” he cried. “The more, the merrier!”
He played with them till ten o’clock, when they disappeared. So he lay
down, and soon was fast asleep.
Next morning the king again came to see him, and said, “Well, how did
you get on this time?”
“I have been playing skittles,” he answered.
“Didn’t you learn to shiver?” the king asked.
“Not I,” he responded. “I only made merry.”
On the third night he once more was in the enchanted castle sitting on
his bench by the fire. “Oh, if I could only learn to shiver!” he said,
in great vexation.
When it grew late, six tall men came in carrying a coffin. “Hello
there!” said he, “set down your burden and make yourselves comfortable.”
They put the coffin on the floor and he went to it and removed the lid.
Inside lay a man. He felt of the man’s hands and face. They were as cold
as ice. “I will soon see whether there is any life left in you,” said
he, and he picked up the man and sat down with him close by the fire and
rubbed his arms to make the blood circulate.
After a time the man grew warm and began to move. “There,” said the
youth, “you see I have got you warmed at last.”
But the man rose up and cried, “Now I will strangle you!”
“What!” exclaimed the youth, “is that all the thanks I get? Back you go
into your coffin then.”
So saying, he grasped him, threw him in, and fastened down the lid. Then
the six men carried the coffin away. “Oh, deary me!” sighed the youth,
“I shall never learn to shiver if I stop here all my life.”
Just then a huge man entered the room. He was frightful to look at, very
old, with a long white beard. “You miserable wretch!” he cried, “now you
shall learn what shivering is, for you shall die.”
“Not so fast,” said the youth. “If I am to die, some one must kill me.”
“I will make short work of you,” declared the old monster.
“Softly, softly!” said the lad. “Don’t boast. Very likely I am stronger
than you are.”
“We shall see about that,” said the old man. “Come with me.”
Then he led the way through numberless dark passages to a smithy, took a
sledge hammer, and with one blow struck an anvil down into the earth so
it was nearly buried out of sight.
“I can better that,” affirmed the youth, and he went to another anvil,
took an ax, and with one blow split the anvil half in two.
The old man had come so near to watch that his beard had dropped down on
the anvil, and it was wedged into the crevice by the blow of the ax.
“Now I have you,” said the youth, “and you will be the one to die.”
Then he seized an iron rod and belabored the old man till the sufferer
shrieked for mercy and promised him great riches if he would stop. So
the lad pulled out the ax, and the released captive led the way back
into the castle and showed the youth three chests of gold in the cellar.
“One is for the poor,” he said, “one is for the king, and one is for
you.”
The clock struck twelve just as the old man finished speaking, and he
disappeared and left the youth alone in the dense darkness of the
cellar. “I must manage to get out somehow,” said the lad, and he groped
about till he found his way back to the room where he had his fire.
There he lay down and went to sleep.
Next morning the king came and said, “Surely you have now learned to
shiver.”
“No,” said the youth, “a coffin was brought to me containing a man who
was nearly frozen, and when I revived him he wanted to strangle me.
Afterward, an old man came who wanted to kill me, but I got the better
of him, and he showed me a lot of gold. However, no one can show me what
shivering means.”
Then the king said, “You have broken the spell on the castle, and you
shall be made a prince and marry my daughter.”
“That is all very fine,” said the youth, “but still I don’t know what
shivering is.”
The gold was brought out from the castle cellar, and the marriage was
celebrated; but happy as the youth now was, and much as he loved his
bride, there yet remained one cause for discontent, and he was always
saying: “Oh that I could learn to shiver! Oh that I could learn to
shake!”
This became quite a source of vexation to his wife as time went on, and
at last her waiting-woman said, “I will help you to teach him the
meaning of shivering.”
She went out to a brook that ran through the garden, and got a pail of
cold water full of little fishes. At night, when the prince was asleep,
his wife took off the coverings and poured the cold water over him. The
little fishes flopped all about him. Then he woke up and cried, “Oh, how
I am shivering, dear wife, how I am shivering! Now I know what shivering
is!”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE WONDERFUL TURNIP
THERE were once two brothers who were soldiers, and one had become an
officer and grown rich. The other remained a common soldier and was
poor. At last the poor one, with the hope to improve his fortune, took
off his soldiering coat and became a farmer. He ploughed a small field
and sowed turnip seed. The seed came up, and the farmer soon observed
that one turnip was growing much faster than any of the others. It grew
till he thought it would never get done growing, and at the end of the
season, when he uprooted it, that one turnip filled a cart and required
two oxen to draw it. Truly it was the queen of turnips, and its like had
never been seen before, nor ever will be again. The farmer knew not what
to do with it, and was uncertain whether it would bring good fortune or
bad.
“If I sold it I should not get much money for it,” said he. “As for
eating it, the ordinary turnips would do as well for that. I think I
will take it to the king.”
So away he went, with oxen dragging the cart that contained the turnip,
and in due time he arrived at court and presented the turnip to the
king.
[Illustration]
“What an extraordinary object!” the king exclaimed. “I have seen many
marvels, but never anything so remarkable as this. You must be a child
of good luck, whether you raised this turnip from seed or found it full
grown.”
“Oh no!” said the farmer, “lucky I certainly am not. For many years I
was a poor soldier, but recently I hung my uniform on a nail, and now I
till the earth. I have a brother who is rich and well known to you, my
lord king; but I, because I have nothing, am forgotten by all the
world.”
Thereupon the king pitied him and said, “You shall be poor no longer;”
and he presented him with gold, land, flocks, and herds that made him
richer than his brother.
When the brother heard what had happened he was envious and pondered how
he might gain a like treasure for himself. Presently he took jewels and
swift horses and gave them to the king. “If my brother got so much for a
single turnip,” thought he, “what will I not get for these beautiful
things?”
The king received the present very graciously and told the soldier he
could give him in return nothing rarer or better than the magnificent
turnip.
So the wealthy soldier was obliged to hire a cart, and have the turnip
taken to his home. He arrived there full of wrath and bitterness. The
more he thought on the matter the worse he felt, and at length he formed
the evil design of having his brother killed. He hired two ruffians, who
waylaid the former poor soldier as he was passing through a wood. They
seized and bound him and prepared to hang him on a tree. But before they
had accomplished their purpose they heard an approaching clatter of
hoofs and the sound of singing. That frightened them so much that they
thrust their prisoner head first into a sack, attached a rope to it,
threw the end of the rope over a branch of an oak and hauled him well up
into the tree. Then they took to flight.
The prisoner soon contrived to work a hole in the sack, and stuck his
head out. Then he perceived that the noise which had saved him was made
by a student, a young fellow who was riding through the wood singing
snatches of song as he went along. Just as the student was passing the
tree, the man called out: “Good day. You come in the nick of time.”
The youth stopped his horse and looked all round, but could not make out
where the voice came from. At last he said, “Who calls?”
“Raise your eyes,” said the man. “I am sitting up here in the Sack of
Knowledge, and in a short time I have learned so much that the wisdom of
the schools is as air compared to mine. Soon I shall have learned
everything, and I shall come down and be the wisest of mankind. I
understand astronomy and the blowing of the winds and the art of healing
the sick, and I know every herb and all the birds and stones. If you
were here in my place you would feel what splendor flows from the Sack
of Knowledge.”
All this greatly astonished and impressed the student, in which he said:
“Blessed be the hour in which I met you! Let me get into the sack for a
little while.”
“Well,” said the other with apparent reluctance, “that you may do if you
will wait for a short time till I am ready. There is one piece of
learning which I have not yet fully mastered.”
So the student waited, but he soon became impatient and entreated to be
allowed to get into the sack at once and satisfy his great thirst for
knowledge. Then the man pretended to take pity on him and told him to
lower the sack to the ground and open the mouth of it. That done, the
farmer got out, and the student started to get in, feet first, saying,
“I want you to make haste and pull me up as fast as possible.”
“Stop, stop!” cried the man. “That won’t do.”
Then he laid hold of the student by the shoulders and thrust him into
the sack head downward, tied it up, and swung the disciple of wisdom up
on the bough of the tree. When the student was dangling up aloft in the
air, the man said: “How do you feel now, my dear fellow? Do you find
that wisdom comes with experience? Stay there quietly till you become
wiser.”
Thereupon he mounted the student’s horse and rode off; but an hour later
he sent some one to release the prisoner in the sack.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE ENCHANTED DOVE
A POOR maidservant was once traveling with her master’s family in a
coach through a great wood. When they were in the very middle of the
wood, a band of robbers sprang out of a thicket and killed every one of
the travelers that they could lay their hands on. Only the maidservant
escaped. She, in her fright, jumped out of the coach and hid behind a
tree.
When the robbers had made off with their booty she came from her place
of concealment and wept as she saw what had happened. “Alas!” she cried,
“here I am left alone in this wild forest. I can never find my way out,
and not a human creature lives in it, so that I shall certainly die of
hunger.”
She wandered about for some time looking for a pathway, but could not
find one. Evening came, and she sat down under a tree and made up her
mind to spend the night there, no matter what might happen. But soon a
little white dove came flying to her with a small golden key in its
beak. It put the key in the girl’s hand, and said: “Examine closely the
bark of the tree-trunk you are leaning against, and you will find a lock
which this key will fit. Turn the key in that lock, and a door will open
and reveal a cupboard in which is food and drink. Take all you need.”
The girl examined the tree, found the lock, and opened the door, and
inside was a basin of milk, and some white bread to eat with it. So she
made a good meal. When she finished, she said to herself: “At home the
hens are going to roost now. Oh, that I had some shelter for the night!”
Then the little dove again came flying to her with another golden key in
its beak, and it said, “This will open a door in yonder tree, within
which you will find a nice bed.”
She opened the door and found a soft, clean bed inside, and she lay down
in it and went to sleep. Next morning the dove came a third time and
brought her a key. This opened a door in another large tree near by, and
there she found many beautiful garments embroidered with gold and
silver, and ornamented with precious stones. No princess could have
desired anything finer.
For a long time the maid dwelt there in the forest, and the dove visited
her every day and supplied all her wants. Her life was peaceful and
happy. One day the dove came to her and said, “Will you do something for
my sake?”
[Illustration]
“With all my heart,” replied the maiden.
Then the dove said: “I will take you to a little house, which you must
enter. By the hearth you will see an old woman sitting. She will bid you
good day, but on no account speak a word to her, whatever she may say or
do. Walk right past her, and at the far side of the fireplace you will
see a door. Open it and go into the room beyond. There, on a table, you
will find a heap of rings of every description. Many of them are very
beautiful and glitter with precious stones, but take none of those.
Instead, search for a small plain one, which is somewhere in the room.
After you secure it, bring it to me as quickly as you can.”
So the dove guided the maiden to the little house, and she opened the
door and saw the old woman, who stared and said, “Good day, my child.”
The maiden did not answer, but went on toward the inner door. “Whither
are you going?” cried the old woman, seizing her by the skirt. “This is
my house, and no one shall pass through that door without my
permission.”
But the girl said never a word. She loosened her skirt from the woman’s
grasp and went into the room beyond the fireplace. On a table lay a
glittering heap of jeweled rings. She searched among them for the plain
one, but could not find it. While she continued her search, the old
woman slipped into the room and took up a bird cage, with which she
started to slyly creep away. Her actions aroused the suspicions of the
maiden, who ran after her and wrenched the cage out of her hands.
Then the girl saw that the bird inside held the plain ring in its beak.
She took the ring and ran joyfully out of the house, thinking she would
find the dove close at hand waiting for her, but no dove appeared.
Anxious and fearful, she leaned against a tree, watching for the coming
of the bird. As she stood there it seemed to her that the tree became
soft and supple and bent its branches downward. Then two of the branches
twined themselves around her, and behold, when she tried to free
herself, they were not branches at all, but two strong arms. She looked
up, and the tree was gone, and in its stead was a fine handsome man with
his arms clasped about her.
“You have released me from the power of the old woman, who is an evil
witch,” said he. “She changed me into a tree a long time ago, but every
day I became a white dove for a couple of hours. So long as she
possessed the ring I could not regain my human form. I am a king’s son,
and I came hither accompanied by servants and horses, who were likewise
changed into trees. But now you see them around me in their natural
forms, and you must come with us to my father’s kingdom.”
When they reached their journey’s end the prince and the maiden married,
and they lived happily ever after.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE THREE WISHES