the great stones from his path as if they were only so many pebbles,
and he tore up the bushes and little trees along his way. It was night,
of course, but that made no difference, for, as any three-eyed person
knows, one who has three eyes can see as well in the night as in the
daytime. When he came to the foot of the hill, he looked around at the
different roads. He did not know anything about salt and thought it
was as likely to grow on trees as anywhere else, so he started to go
through the forest. With two eyes he looked at the trees on either side
of the way and with the third, the one on the top of his head, he kept
close watch of the moon. “I heard once that the moon was made of green
cheese,” he said to himself, “and maybe salt is a kind of cheese.”
Now Mumpkin was not at all used to thinking, and he was so tired by
this effort that he had to sit down to rest. He fell asleep and slept
a long while. He was awakened by a loud “Cock-a-doodle-doo!” directly
in front of him. The giant rubbed his three eyes and looked around. A
big handsome cock was strutting up and down in the path, looking at the
monster as if he were a new kind of worm that might or might not be
good to eat.
“Get out of the road!” roared the giant.
“With pleasure,” replied the cock. It gave a little flutter with its
wings and in a moment it was resting comfortably on the giant’s left
shoulder.
“Yah! Get off!” the giant growled.
“Certainly,” the cock replied, “but if you knew how much I know, you
would be glad to have me whisper in your ear.”
“I’ll wring your neck,” roared the giant, and put up his hand to catch
the cock; but in a twinkling the bird was on the limb of a tree higher
than even a giant could well reach.
“Are you going farther down this road?” the cock asked.
“Yes, I am,” said the giant. “I am going to find salt; but it’s no
business of yours.”
“May I give you a bit of advice?” asked the cock politely.
“Keep your advice to yourself,” the giant growled.
“But I have to give it,” said the cock. “That is what I am put here
for. It is this: Do not go down this road any farther. There is no salt
here, and if you go, something will surely happen to you.”
“Something might happen to you, you stupid little bunch of bill and
feathers,” shouted the giant angrily, “but things don’t happen to folk
as big as I am, I’ll have you know.” And he started off down the road
faster than he had ever walked before in all his life.
For a long while nothing happened except that the trees grew taller and
taller; but suddenly the giant heard a growling which sounded louder
than any growling that he had ever heard before, and in a moment a
dreadful creature came out of the woods. It was a thousand times as big
as the giant. Its enormous tail switched from side to side. It walked
on four legs, and when it stretched one of them out, the giant saw
that it was armed with sharp claws almost as long as his whole body.
The creature was covered with a thick growth of yellow-and-black hair
which stood on end at the sight of the strange object in the road. It
glared at him with horrible great yellow eyes, and then put out one big
paw to touch him and rolled him over and over in the dust. Never was a
giant so terribly frightened before. The monster tumbled him about and
played with him awhile, then gave a great yawn which revealed a vast
cavern of a mouth as red as a fiery furnace, and walked away.
The giant lay trembling, but after a time he shook himself and turned
toward home. “Salt or no salt, I’ll go no farther,” he declared. “I’ll
go home, and I’ll run faster than any giant ever ran before.”
He ran as fast as he could, but somehow he did not get over the ground
at all rapidly. It seemed a long way from one tree to another. He was
tired and he was thirsty. He stopped at a clear, quiet little pool to
get a drink. A beetle sat in the bottom of the pool, looking straight
at him. “I never saw a beetle like that in the water before,” growled
the giant, and he made an ugly face at it. The beetle did the same, but
made no reply. The giant drank what he wanted and went on. It was a
long, long way. The sun rose and the sun set many and many a time, but
at last the giant was at the gate of the castle.
“Let me in,” he cried. “I tell you, let me in.” He pounded on the gate
with all his might, and at last he heard his brothers coming. “I’ll
kill them,” he growled, “for keeping me out here,” and he thumped
louder than ever. At last Lumpkin opened the gate.
“It is strange, isn’t it,” he said, “that Mumpkin does not come. I
suppose he’s found something good to eat, another boy, maybe, and he
means to keep it all for himself. I don’t care whether he comes or
not, but I want that salt. Ugh! what a horrid beetle that is,” and he
crushed it with his foot. This was the end of Mumpkin. The forest was
no ordinary forest, of course, but an enchanted wilderness; and whoever
went too far in it turned into some wild creature. The giant had not
found it out, but he had really been a beetle for a long, long time,
and the monster that had given him such a fright was only a playful cat.
The brothers shut the gate and went into the castle again. They were
tired of waiting for a mouthful of roasted boy, but they were always
afraid that the other race of giants, the Pogglywogs, would become
larger than they; and now that they had heard that the Pogglywogs ate
salt with their boys, they did not want to taste this one without it.
“I won’t wait any longer,” declared Lumpkin. “I’m going to find some
salt, and what’s more, I won’t be so long about it as that stupid
lubber.” So the second giant set out to search for salt. When he
came to the foot of the mountain, he looked at the three roads and
concluded to go on the one that went still farther down. The rolling
stones gave him considerable trouble, and more than once he had rather
a hard fall because of them. He was half-stunned by the last tumble,
and he lay on the ground a minute or two before he tried to get up.
When he rose again and looked around him, there stood a cock quietly
watching him.
“May I ask,” said the cock politely, “if you intend to go much farther
on this road?”
“What’s that to you?” growled Lumpkin, rubbing his bruised elbow and
grating his teeth horribly. “I’ll eat you, I will. I always eat cocks.”
“May I give you a bit of advice?” asked the cock.
“No,” the giant thundered. “I can make advice for myself. Get out.”
“But I have to give it,” said the cock quietly. “That is what I am put
here for. This is it: Do not go down this road any farther. There is no
salt here, and if you go, something will surely happen to you.”
“Something will happen to _you_!” shouted the giant, and with all three
mouths at once he tried to bite the cock’s head off. The cock flew up
on the limb of a great tree, far above the head of the giant, and sat
there watching as the giant strode off down the hill.
It was not long before he came to a lake. Now the giant had never seen
water in that form before. This looked smooth and easy to walk on, so
he set out to walk on it instead of on the road. Even near the shore
the water was deep, and in a little less than no time the giant was
down on his knees in the lake, spluttering and storming and snarling
and growling and grating his teeth together as if he meant to eat even
the rocks and the sand.
“There are better ways of getting over the water than trying to walk on
it,” said a voice pleasantly.
The giant staggered to his feet and looked around.
“Eh?” said he.
“There are better ways of getting over the water than trying to walk
on it,” the voice repeated; and now the giant saw that it proceeded
from a boat that was coming nearer and nearer. In the boat was a
yellow-and-black cat, who bowed politely and sat waiting for him to
speak.
“What’s that thing you’re in?” demanded the giant.
“This is a boat,” the cat replied. “With it one can easily go on the
water.”
“Get out, I want it,” the giant growled.
The cat’s yellow eyes began to look fiery, but she asked very quietly:--
“Are you sure that you can manage it?”
“Of course I can; I am a hundred times as big as you.”
“But I have a collar around my neck, and you have none.”
“I’ll have one, too,” the giant cried. “Where’s the stuff you make it
of?”
“There’s some stuff you might use on the ground on the farther side of
that big rock,” said the cat. “See that you make it thick enough.”
The giant picked up a great mass of the stuff. It was lead and it was
exceedingly heavy, but he bent it and squeezed it and pulled it and
punched it and jammed it and pounded it until he had made a collar big
enough to go over his head with only the least bit of crowding. It
would have taken at least ten common men to lift it, but the giant put
it on without any trouble.
“Bring that boat to me,” he called in a voice that would have
frightened most cats out of a year’s growth; but this one only looked
at him and slowly rowed the boat up to the shore. Then she sprang out
lightly and curled herself up on a warm rock. The giant stepped on the
gunwale of the boat with one of his enormous feet. Then he lifted the
other foot, and, of course, the boat tipped over just as any other boat
would have done, and in a moment the giant lay on the bottom of the
lake. His head with the leaden collar was down and his heels were up;
and up they stayed, for this was the end of the three-mouthed giant
Lumpkin.
“Folk that never use their heads ought not to mind losing them,” said
the cat, as she yawned comfortably and stretched herself out to take a
nap.
Meanwhile, several events had taken place in the castle of the three
giants. Humpkin had more than once gone to the top of the tower and
listened first with one ear, then with another, and then with all
three; but not a sound could he hear of either Mumpkin or Lumpkin. “I
rather think they are killed,” he said, “and I’m glad of it, for now
I’ll eat that boy all by myself. I don’t care anything about salt,
whatever it may be, and I’ll go straight to the dungeon and get him.”
Now several events had been happening in the dungeon also. At first it
was a very white-faced and badly frightened boy who lay there on the
damp floor; but as hour after hour passed and no one came to harm him,
he began to recover from his fright a little and to look about him
to see if there was any way of making his escape. The walls were of
stone, the window was far above his head, and the door was evidently
locked and bolted. What could he do?
While he sat pondering, he thought he heard a sound on the other side
of the wall as if some one was speaking. He could see a tiny crack in
the wall, so he lay down on the floor and put his ear to the crack.
Then he heard a voice that asked:--
“Who are you?”
“I’m a boy, and my name is Hansel. I came out to seek my fortune. The
cock and the cat and the bees wouldn’t let me go on the other roads,
and so I came here, and the giants caught me. They say they mean to eat
me. Who are you?”
“I am a magician,” the voice replied.
“Then why don’t you tear the castle down or kill the giants or call
up an earthquake or do something?” the boy cried. “I always thought
magicians could do anything they chose.”
“So they can if they choose something that they can do,” declared the
voice. “But even magicians,” he added, “cannot do everything without
anything.”
“Can’t you draw a magic circle so the giants can’t touch you?” asked
Hansel.
“I could if I had anything to draw it with,” said the magician, “but I
haven’t.”
“I haven’t even a crumb of anything to eat,” said Hansel, “and I am
hungry as hungry.”
“Haven’t you a bit of bread or a kernel of corn or a grain of wheat
about you?”
“Not one. I have only three little seeds of nobody knows what; a black
one that a cock gave me; a yellow one that some bees gave me; and a
white one that a cat gave me. They’re of no use; they wouldn’t make a
mouthful for a sparrow.”
“Maybe they will for a boy, though,” said the magician thoughtfully. “I
shouldn’t be in the least surprised if they were magic seeds. At any
rate, they are of no use as they are, and you may as well plant them
and see what will come up.”
“There’s no earth to plant them in,” said Hansel.
“That’s no matter,” replied the magician. “Magic seeds do not need
earth. Just lay one of them down in a corner and say over it:--
I plant thee, seed,
Now in my need.
Be not afraid
To lend thy aid.”
So many strange things had come to pass that Hansel was almost afraid
to have anything to do with the seeds; but he finally decided to plant
the yellow one, and then, if nothing dreadful happened, to plant
the black one, and after that, the white. He laid the yellow one
down gently, repeated the magician’s spell over it, and turned away.
Before he could get across the little room, he felt something touch
his shoulder. It was a branch of a tree, and was loaded with bright
red apples; another was full of thick slices of bread and butter well
sprinkled with sugar; from another hung many little buckets of creamy
milk; another was weighted down with cake and gingerbread; another with
sugar cookies; and yet another with tender, juicy roast beef and roast
chicken. While he stood gazing at all these things, the tree kept on
growing; and even before the hungry boy could put out his hand for a
single mouthful, it had almost reached the top of the room, and every
branch had something good on it.
Hansel threw himself on the floor beside the crack in the wall and
told the magician of the amazing thing that had happened. “I wish I
could get through this wall,” he said, “so I could give you something
to eat. Can’t you dig through it?” he asked eagerly. “Haven’t you any
knife?”
“The giants took it away,” replied the magician; “but never mind. Since
your seeds are magic seeds, there is hope for us, and I don’t mind
going hungry for a while. Be quick and plant another and see what will
come of it.”
Hansel planted the tiny black seed, saying over the same magic spell.
He did not turn his back this time, you may be sure; but now, although
a little shoot came up at once, it grew more slowly, and it was at
least ten minutes before it bore any fruit. Even when the fruit
appeared, it did not look very valuable, for it was only one pod, long
and brown and thick. Hansel told the magician about it, and before
he had fairly finished speaking, he heard something drop heavily on
the floor behind him. The pod had ripened and burst and the fruit had
fallen out--the biggest, sharpest, strongest jackknife that was ever
made in all the world.
“Oh, oh!” cried Hansel. “Now, Mr. Magician, I can dig through this
wall.”
That would not have been so easily done with any common knife; but this
one actually seemed to dig of itself, for whether Hansel was holding
it or not, it kept on working and the bits of stone kept on falling.
It was not many minutes before the hole was large enough for a boy to
creep through; and through it Hansel went with his hands full of bread
and butter and gingerbread and roast beef.
If only there had been no giants to fear, the boy and the magician
would have had a delightful time together. Even as it was, they had so
much to tell that for a little while they forgot all about the third
seed. At last the magician thought of it and he said:--
“There is no knowing how soon the giants may come upon us. Hurry back
and plant the third seed and see what help that will give us.”
Then Hansel crept back and planted the little white seed. That was
even slower than the black one in coming up; but yet it was not many
minutes before it was up to Hansel’s knees and had begun to form its
fruit. Never was there such fruit seen before. It was perfectly white
and round and hard. After a while it fell off, and Hansel in great
disappointment carried it to the magician.
“Here it is,” he said, “but it is no good at all. It looks just like a
piece of chalk.”
Much to his surprise, the magician clapped his hands and cried:--
“This is best of all. Now we are safe. Come giant or dwarf or troll or
demon, they cannot harm us.”
Hansel was afraid the magician had gone mad, but in a moment he
understood. The white fruit really was chalk, and in only two or three
seconds longer than no time at all, the magician was down on his knees,
drawing a magic circle about himself and the boy as fast as ever he
could.
“There!” he said, with a deep sigh of relief. “Nothing can hurt us now.
There’s something else for you to know. The magic seeds were given to
you, and, therefore, you have the right to ask three questions. What is
the first?”
It did not take Hansel long to think what he wanted to know, and
without a moment’s delay he cried:--
“Please tell me where is the terrible giant with three eyes?”
“He lies dead outside the gate of the castle,” said a voice.
“Where is the one with the three mouths?”
“His feet are in the air, his head in the water, and he is drowned as
dead as a stone,” replied the voice.
“And where is the one with the three ears?”
“He stands outside the dungeon and is just about to open the door,” was
the reply; and sure enough, the bolts were drawn, the key was turned,
and the giant Humpkin strode into the room.
“How did you get here, you young rascal, you?” he roared. “I put you
into the other dungeon to wait till I came to eat you. You’ll pay for
this, you will.” Humpkin caught him by the arm, or rather, tried to
catch him, for the instant the giant put one foot within the circle,
something or other struck him a heavy blow. He tried again, and this
time he was struck so terribly that he howled with pain and fright and
ran for his life, leaving all the doors wide open behind him.
“Come,” cried the magician; “come quick!” He caught the boy by the hand
and half dragged him out of the dungeon. “Stay there,” he said when
they had come to the courtyard, and he himself ran through the gate
of the castle. Then, while Humpkin was half running and half rolling
down the mountain, the magician, too, was running as fast as he could
go, making a wide chalk mark entirely around the castle. When this was
done, he went back into the court, not troubling himself to close the
gate, and called to Hansel.
“Come, let’s go up into the tower,” he said, “and see what will happen.”
They climbed to the top of the highest tower and looked around. Pretty
soon they saw Humpkin come stumbling up the hill, snarling and growling
and by turns rubbing his head and shaking his great fist. “I’ll be
there,” he muttered, “and then you’ll pay for this, you will. I’ll eat
you both before you can say--‘Oh! Oh!’” he screeched, for again he had
touched the magic circle, and a third blow, worse than either of the
others, had sent him a quarter of a league from the gate. He tried
again and again, but as he made the third attempt, a swarm of bees flew
into his face, buzzing and stinging so savagely that they drove him
over the cliff. This cliff was so high that he broke into pieces long
before he reached the bottom, such small pieces that as yet no one has
ever found even one of them.
After the magician and Hansel had seen the last of the giant, they came
down from the tower and began to look through the castle. Of course
there were, as in every giant’s castle, rooms upon rooms filled from
floor to ceiling with silver and gold; there were others fairly crammed
with diamonds and rubies and emeralds and pearls.
“You will be the richest boy in the whole land,” said the magician.
“You are king, of course.”
“Why, aren’t you going to be king?” asked the boy, with wide-open eyes.
“King? No, not I. I am a magician,” was the proud reply. “Only let me
have a quiet tower where no one ever slams the doors or interrupts me
when I am making my calculations, and I would not give a fig for all
the gold and jewels in the castle. But come, now, and let us go down
into the dungeons. There may be some one else shut up there.”
Down into the dungeons they went. The giant’s keys were sticking in the
door of the dungeon where the magician had been shut up. Room after
room was unlocked, but no one was to be seen.
“We must have been the only prisoners,” said the magician. “There seem
to be no more rooms.”
“I thought I saw a little door out of that dark place under the
stairs,” Hansel said. “Maybe that’s a room.”
“We’ll see,” said the magician, and he tried key after key, but none
of them fitted. “I fancy there’s a touch of magic about this,” he said
thoughtfully. “Some magician must have been here and made this lock.
There’s one thing sure, what magic has done, magic can undo.”
He drew a circle entirely around the little door and wrote some
mysterious figures and signs within it. He had hardly finished the last
one before the door flung itself open. There stood a tall, stately
man, and by his side was a beautiful woman with her arm thrown closely
around a young girl two or three years older than Hansel.
Now comes the strangest part of the whole story and the one that is
hardest to believe, for these three people proved to be Hansel’s father
and mother and sister. They had really been stolen away by trolls, as
their friends thought, and had been put into the dungeon of the giants
for safe-keeping. The trolls had been overcome by other trolls who
were stronger than they and put to death. The giants were not used to
remembering things, and they had forgotten all about their prisoners.
Luckily, Hansel’s father had some magic food in his pockets, or else
they would have starved long before. There they were, alive and well;
and now Hansel, the lonely little boy whom nobody wanted, had a father
and mother and sister, a powerful friend, and rooms upon rooms filled
with gold and silver from floor to ceiling.
The doors of the castle keep were flung wide open. The sun shone in and
the sweet, strong wind blew through and through it until every corner
was fresh and pure. Little flowers began to grow in the courtyard.
They showed their faces timidly at first, but soon there were great
companies of them, bright and cheery and happy as ever flowers could
be. Vines ran up the walls and peered over into the very keep of the
castle. Some even slipped in through the gratings of the dungeons to
see what kind of places they were. Night and day the gates stood
open, for there were no enemies to be afraid of. Hansel grew into a
tall young man, and he ruled the country so kindly and wisely that
the people declared there never was in all the wide world so good a
sovereign as their own King Hansel the First.
THE STAR PRINCESS
THE STAR PRINCESS
There was great rejoicing at the royal palace. Flags waved from every
tower. Bright-colored silken streamers floated from every window. Each
maidservant had been given a new gown and each servingman a broad
silver piece. Little bells were tinkling joyously. Soft strains of
music came from one corner and another. The rejoicing was not only at
the palace, but throughout the Island Kingdom. Men and women took a
holiday from their work. Children went about the streets singing. When
night came, every window was ablaze with light and every hilltop was
glowing with a bonfire; for the King and Queen had a little daughter.
Her eyes were as blue as the ocean, her skin was as white as its foam,
and her hair was as yellow as the gleam of the sunlight on the sand.
By and by there was a magnificent christening feast. Kings and nobles
and princes and witches and magicians and fairies were all invited.
Every one came and every one gave the beautiful baby Princess his very
best wishes.
“The King is a happy man to have a child like that,” said one guest to
another as they were leaving the palace.
“True,” replied the other, “but he did not look happy. Did not you
notice how troubled his face was and how strangely he acted? When some
one pushed the curtains aside for a bit of air, did you see how quickly
he ran to the window and drew them together again with his own hands,
and looked at the baby as if he was afraid it would disappear at a ray
of daylight? I am sure that he is anxious about something. The Queen
is not. She is as happy as the day is long.”
“I should think she would be. She has everything in the world that she
wants, and not one thing to trouble her.”
When all the guests had gone and the candles had burned low, the King
went to the Queen and said:--
“My Queen, I have something very sad to tell you. Can you bear it?”
“I can bear anything with such a child as this,” she replied.
Then the King said:--