to the gate of it, so he would have no trouble in getting in. The lad
took the key and a milking pail, and off he set. The Troll and the woman
had no other thought than that was the end of him.
On and on he went, one foot before the other, and after a while he came
to the garden, and then he took out the key and unlocked the door and
stepped inside.
No sooner had he done this than he saw twelve great lions, each one
fiercer and larger than the other, and they came at him ramping and
roaring so that he was almost deafened by the noise of it, and their
teeth were terrible to see.
But the lad was no whit frightened. He caught hold of the foremost lion,
and tore it in two, and scattered it in pieces all about him.
When the other lions saw that, all the fierceness went out of them, and
they crawled to his feet, and fawned on him, and became as tame as dogs.
The lad patted them, and then he milked a few drops into the milk pail
and started for home with it, but the lions would not be left behind.
They followed after him close at his heels, as dogs follow their master.
After a while he came within sight of the Troll’s house, and at that
very moment the woman happened to be looking out of the window, and
there she saw him coming along, with the eleven lions following after
him. Then she was terribly frightened, and she called to the Troll, and
together they barred all the doors and windows, so the lions could not
get in at them.
The lad came to the door and tried to open it, and when he found it was
fastened, he called to them to let him in, but they would not until he
made the lions lie down outside, and promised they should stay there.
When he went in, there stood his mother shaking and trembling.
“Well, mother, here is the lions’ milk,” he said, “and I’m sure I hope
it may make you well again.”
The woman was obliged to drink the milk, though she did not want it.
That night the Troll and she began talking together after they thought
the lad was sleeping. But he was wide awake and heard all they said
between them, though they spoke in whispers.
“This son of yours is so strong I don’t see how we’re ever to get rid of
him,” said the Troll.
“Well, if you don’t know, I’m sure I don’t,” replied the woman.
“There’s one other plan we might try,” said the Troll. “I have two more
brothers who live not so very far away from here in a castle, and they
are very strong and terrible. Round about the castle is an orchard that
bears apples all the year round, and any one who so much as tastes of
those apples at once falls into a deep sleep, and nothing can waken him
till he has had his sleep out, and the sleep lasts for three days and
three nights. If we could but send the lad there after the apples, he
would be sure to eat of them, and fall asleep, and then my brothers
would find him there and tear him to pieces for they come out every day
to walk in the garden and so would be sure to find him.”
“If that is the way of it, we’ve no need to worry,” said the woman, “for
I’ll find a way to send him there.”
The next day the woman said she still was not able to get up. She lay
there in the bed, moaning and groaning.
“I’m sorry to see you so ailing, mother, but I’m sure I don’t know what
to do about it.”
“If I but had some apples from the orchard that belongs to the Troll’s
brothers, I’d be well enough,” said the woman, “and if you were but the
good son you pretend to be, I know you’d fetch them for me.”
“I’ll fetch you the apples soon enough,” replied her son. “No trouble
about that. Though to tell you the truth, I doubt whether they’ll cure
you.”
The lad made no more ado about it, but off he set for the orchard, and
the eleven lions followed close at his heels.
When he came to where the apple trees were, he climbed up into the one
that bore the finest fruit, and ate and ate until he could eat no more.
Then he came down and stretched himself out on the soft grass and fell
into a deep sleep.
The eleven lions gathered about him and guarded him while he slept.
Now not long after this, the Troll’s two brothers came out into the
orchard for a stroll, and there, the first thing they saw, was the lad
lying under the finest of the apple trees fast asleep, with the apples
lying all about him and one in his hand.
At that sight they flew into a fine rage, and they turned themselves
into fierce man-eating steeds, and rushed at him to destroy him.
But before they had a chance even so much as to touch him, the eleven
lions rose up and rushed at the two steeds and fought them, and tore
them into small pieces and scattered them around like dung.
At the end of three days and three nights, the lad awoke and looked
about him, and there were the lions still guarding him, but the ground
was all dug up as though a battle had been fought there, and there were
deep hoof marks, and pieces of the steeds were scattered all about the
orchard. The lad looked and wondered, and he could not think what had
been happening, but he was not a bit afraid, and he thought as long as
he was there, he might as well go and have a look at the castle.
When he drew near to it, he saw a most beautiful maiden looking out from
one of the windows, and at sight of her the lad’s heart melted within
him for love of her, she was so beautiful.
“It is lucky for you that you had your lions with you just now,” said
the maiden.
“Why is that?” asked the lad.
Then the maiden told him how the Trolls had gone out into the orchard a
bit ago, when he was asleep under the apple tree, and how they had
changed themselves into man-eating steeds and come at him to destroy
him, and how the lions had then risen up and torn the Trolls to pieces.
The lad listened to her until she had made an end of the story, and then
he said, “That is as it should be, and it was to guard me that I brought
them hither.” Then he asked the maiden whether he might come in, and at
first she would not let him, because she was afraid of the lions, but
when he promised they should not harm her, but would lie down at the
threshold as quiet as house cats, she opened the door to him.
The lad looked about him, and it seemed to him the castle was but a
rough place for such a beauty to live in.
“I wonder,” said he, “that such a one as you should be living here with
no better company than those two Trolls were.”
“It is not of my own will I am living here,” replied the maiden. Then
she told him she was the daughter of the King of Arabia, and that she
had been walking in her father’s garden one day, and the Trolls had
appeared out of a forest near by, and carried her away with them, and
she had been well-nigh scared out of her wits by it. But they had done
her no harm, though they had kept her a prisoner here, and they intended
that after a while one or other of them should take her as a wife. Then
she asked the lad who he was, and where he had come from, and he told
her all about it.
“You may be the son of a beggar, but all the same it seems to me you are
something of a hero,” said the Princess, “and now we will see whether I
am right about it.”
Then she led him into another room and showed him where two great swords
were hanging on the wall.
“Those are the Trolls’ swords,” said the Princess, “and they are very
heavy to handle. Now try whether you can lift one of them down from the
wall, though I doubt whether you are strong enough.”
“That is an easy task you are setting me,” said the lad. He took a chair
and set it on a table, and another chair on top of that; and then he
climbed up on them, for the swords were so high on the wall that only in
that way could he reach the place where they were hanging. Then he
reached out and set one finger under the point of one of the swords, and
tossed it up in the air and caught it, and he leaped down and flourished
the sword about him, so that it whistled.
“Yes, I can see that you are indeed a hero,” said the Princess; “so now
tell me: shall I go home to my father, the King of Arabia, or shall I
stay here and be your wife?”
It did not take the lad long to make his choice in that matter.
“You shall stay here and be my wife,” said he, “for indeed I love you so
dearly that if I cannot marry you, then I shall never marry any one.”
So the Princess stayed on in the castle, and she and the lad were very
happy together.
But after some time had passed, the Princess said she ought to go back
and see her father, for he did not know what had become of her, and no
doubt he had grieved bitterly, thinking she was dead.
This reminded the lad that he had promised to take back the apples to
his mother, and it was agreed between them that she should go back to
Arabia, and that he should take the apples to his mother, and that then
he should come after her to her father’s kingdom and claim her.
So the next day they set out, and the Princess went to the nearest
seaport, and hired a vessel with some of the jewels she wore, and sailed
back to Arabia. But the lad set out for the Troll’s house with the bosom
of his shirt full of apples, and the lions following close at his heels.
When he came near the Troll’s house, his mother was looking out of the
window, and no sooner did she see him than she began to shake and
shiver.
“There is my son back again,” said she, “and indeed I feel terribly
frightened.”
“He’s a strong one, and that’s the truth,” said the Troll, “and I wish
we could find out what makes him so, for it’s not in nature for any one
to be as strong as he is.”
“Perhaps there is indeed some secret about it,” said the woman, “and if
there is, I may be able in some way to wheedle it out of him. At least I
can do no better then try.”
So she made haste to open the door and welcome the lad back to his home
again, but the lions had to stay outside, because both she and the Troll
were afraid of them.
“And did you get the apples?” she asked of him.
Yes, he had the apples. “And I hope they’ll cure you, mother,” said he,
“though I think you have little need of them, for I never saw you
looking better.”
“Oh I’m still very ailing,” said she, “and I’ll eat the apples after a
bit; but first do you sit down and have a bite of the good supper I’ve
cooked for you.”
So the lad sat down, and the mother gave him his supper, and while he
ate it, she sat beside him and talked to him.
“You’re a strong one,” said she, “and there’s no doubt about that.”
“Strong enough,” replied her son, still eating.
“And how did it all come about?” asked the woman. “For only a while ago
you were a weakling, and it was I who had to help you over the rough
places.”
“Now I’ll tell you,” said the lad, for he was sleepy from eating so much
supper and scarce knew what he was saying. “It’s all because of that
blue belt that we saw at the crossroads and that I wanted to pick up,
and you forbade me.”
Then he told his mother the whole story, and the woman sat and listened,
and the Troll listened, too, only he was hidden behind a door and the
lad did not see him.
“And that’s the way the strength came to me,” said the lad, when he had
made an end of the telling.
“And have you the belt on you now?” asked the woman.
“Yes, I have,” said the lad, and he opened his shirt and showed it to
her.
Then, before he could stop her, the woman caught hold of the belt and
tore it from him, and at once all his strength went out of him, so that
he was helpless before her.
Then the Troll came from behind the door, and he and the woman made
merry together because the lad was so helpless, and they talked together
about what they should do with the lad to get rid of him. The woman was
for taking him out to a high cliff and throwing him over, but the Troll
said no, that was not bad enough for him. In the end the Troll put out
the lad’s eyes, and set him adrift in a boat on the sea, and he and the
woman thought that was the end of him.
But it was not, for the lions were faithful, and they had followed
after, and when they saw the boat drifting away, they swam after it and
caught the edge of the boat with their teeth, and brought it ashore on
an island.
There they and the lad lived, and the lions took care of him, for the
lad was helpless because he was blind. The lions found a cave for him to
live in and caught birds and wild animals for him to eat, and the lad
picked the feathers off the birds, and took the skins of the animals,
and made a soft bed for himself, and always, while some of the lions
were out hunting, others stayed with him to guard him and see that no
harm came to him.
One day the oldest lion went out hunting, and he went a long way before
he found anything. Then, after a while, he started up a hare, and it was
blind. The lion chased the hare, and it went leaping along, and
presently, because it was blind, it fell into a pool of water. As soon
as the water touched its eyes, it could see again, and it scrambled out
from the pool and escaped the lion.
The lion went back to where the lad was sitting in his cave, and took
hold of his clothes, and began to pull at them. The lad did not know
what the lion wanted of him, but he got up and allowed the lion to lead
him. It led him on and on, until they came to the edge of the pool, and
then the lion loosed his clothing and gave the lad such a push that he
fell head over heels into the water. No sooner did the water touch his
eyes than the blindness was all gone, and he could see again even better
than before.
Then the lad rejoiced greatly, and he got into the boat and went back
to the place where the Troll lived, and the lions swam after.
After he landed, he crept up toward the house very carefully, so that no
one saw him, and peeped in at the door. The woman was busy at the
dough-trough making up bread, and her back was toward him, and there was
the blue belt hanging from a nail in the wall.
The lad crept in and seized it and put it around him, and then he began
to shout and stamp about, and call to the woman and the Troll to come
and catch hold of him.
The woman turned about, and when she saw the lad was there and the belt
gone from the wall, she knew what had happened. She was terribly
frightened, and began to coax and cajole him, and beg him to let her
have the belt again.
But the lad would not listen to her. He threw open the door and called
in the lions, and they soon made an end of her. Then they ran out and
found the Troll, too, and tore him to pieces in spite of all his cries
and prayers for mercy.
That was the end of them, and after that the lad was ready to set out
for Arabia to claim the Princess as his wife, but he would not let the
lions go with him for there was no need for them in that business.
The lad journeyed on and on, and after a while he came to Arabia, and
there he heard a story of how the daughter of the King of that country
had been stolen away by Trolls, and kept a prisoner for a long time but
now she was home, and the King was so glad to have her back he said he
would never let her leave him again. He had hidden her away, no one knew
where, and when any one came to ask her hand in marriage the King said
no one might have her but he who could find her, and if any one tried to
find her and failed, he should have his head cut off.
Many kings and princes had lost their lives in this manner.
The lad listened and listened to everything that was said, and he
thought to himself that he would be the next to have a try at finding
the Princess, but he said nothing about it to any one.
One day the lad met a man who was selling white bearskins, and the lad
stopped him and began talking to him. “I will tell you what we will do,”
said he. “I will put on one of those bearskins, and then do you fasten a
collar around my neck and lead me through the town by a chain, and I
will dance and perform tricks.”
This plan pleased the man, and he readily agreed to it; so the lad put
on the bearskin, and the man led him about by a chain, and everywhere
the lad danced and performed in such a wonderful way that the people
were amazed.
After a while it came to the King’s ears that such a beast was in the
town, and that not only could it dance and perform tricks, but it could
understand everything that was said to it.
The King became very curious to see the animal, and he sent word for the
man to come to the palace and bring the bear with him.
The man at once set out for the palace, and on the way he said to the
lad, “Now you must do your best, for if you can succeed in pleasing the
King, he will be sure to pay us well.”
“Yes,” said the lad, “but when we come to the palace, you must warn
everybody that they are not to laugh at me, for if the people there
laugh at me, I may become so enraged that I will tear them to pieces
before I know what I am doing.”
So as soon as the man came to the palace, he said that no one was to
laugh at the bear, whatever happened, and the King promised that no one
should.
Then the lad began to perform his tricks, but in the very midst of
things one of the maids began to laugh, and at once the pretended bear
flew at her and tore her to pieces before any one could stop him.
The man was terrified, but the King said, “It does not matter; she was
only a maid, after all.”
After that the King said the man and the bear must spend the night at
the castle. The man might sleep in the kitchen, but the bear should stay
in the little room that opened out from the King’s own chamber. The man
had nothing to sleep on but hard boards, but the bear was given a bed
made of feathers and soft cushions to lay his head on.
That night, when all the palace was still, and no one awake to see him,
the King came to the room where the pretended bear was lying, and roused
him and bade him come with him, for the King had a mind to show the bear
to his daughter, and have her see the tricks and the dancing.
The King led the pretended bear upstairs and downstairs, and through
cellars and long galleries and around corners, and all the while the lad
kept his eyes open, and watched carefully just where they were going, so
that he might know how to come the next time.
After a while, the King still leading him, they came out on a long pier
with the water washing about it. Here the King pulled and pushed at
different posts and wooden pegs, and all the while the lad watched him
carefully. Presently a little house came floating, floating across the
water until it lay close up against the pier, and then the King took out
a bunch of keys and unlocked the door and
[Illustration: When she saw the bear she cried aloud with terror. _Page
169_]
led the bear inside, and there, in a little golden room, sat the
beautiful Princess.
The Princess started up when the King entered, and when she saw the bear
she cried aloud with terror. But the King bade her not to fear it, for
it was a trained bear, and there was no danger from it unless some one
laughed at it.
The Princess promised she would not laugh, and then the King bade the
bear perform its tricks. All went well until the Princess’ waiting-maid
quite forgot the warning the King had given, and began to laugh. At once
the pretended bear flew at her and tore her in pieces.
The Princess screamed, but the King said, “Why should you be troubled?
It was her own fault, for I warned her. Besides, she was nothing but a
waiting-maid.”
Then he said he would leave the bear there until morning, for he had no
mind to lead it back through all those galleries and cellars and
windings at that time of night.
The Princess was very unwilling to have the beast left there, and so
she told the King, but while she and her father were talking, the bear
curled down in the corner and pretended to go to sleep. So then the
Princess agreed that it might stay there, but she made the King promise
to come back and get it the first thing in the morning.
Then the King went away, locking the door behind him, and as soon as he
had gone, the bear rose up and came over to the Princess, and begged her
to undo his collar. The Princess was like to die of terror at this, but
the bear spoke so gently and pleaded with her so piteously that at last
she took courage and felt in among his fur and unfastened the collar.
At once the lad threw off the bear skin, and there the Princess saw her
own dear husband standing before her. Then there was great joy between
them, and the lad told the Princess all that had happened to him since
they had parted, and they spent the night together very happily.
But at earliest dawn the lad put on the bearskin again, and made the
Princess fasten the collar, for so he would have it, and when the King
came again, there was the bear still slumbering in his corner, and the
Princess asleep among her pillows.
The King took hold of the chain that was fastened to the bear’s collar,
and made it get up and follow, and he led it out of the house to the
pier. Then he pulled and pushed at the posts and pivots, and the little
house floated away across the water, to some place where no one could
see it. After that the King led the bear back to its master, and gave
the man a handful of gold as a reward, and bade him be off with it.
As soon as the man and the lad were back where they lived, the lad made
him undo the collar, and he took off the bearskin. Then it was not long
before he was back at the palace and asking to see the King, for he said
he had come there to have a hunt for the Princess.
When the King saw the lad he had pity on him because he was so young and
handsome.
“This is a very foolish thing that you would do,” said he. “Do you not
know how many kings and nobles have lost their lives in searching for
the Princess? Why should you wish to perish also?”
But the lad would not listen to him. Hunt for the Princess he must and
would.
“Very well”, said the King at last. “Since your heart is set on it, you
must go your own way, but remember you will be allowed only twenty-four
hours in which to find her.”
Very well! That suited the lad well enough.
Now there were many pretty girls in the palace, and music and dancing,
and the lad joined in and danced and laughed with the best of them. He
amused himself all day, and at last only one hour was left of all the
twenty-four in which he was to search for the Princess.
“There!” said the King. “Now you have danced your life away, and it is
time for the headsman.”
“Not so,” said the lad, “for I have still one hour left, and now I will
go and look for the Princess.”
With that he set out, and the King and the court were obliged to follow.
The lad went upstairs and downstairs, through cellars and along
galleries, along the way the King had led him the night before, and all
the while the King kept saying, “This is not the way to go. You are all
wrong, and you will never find her this way.”
When they came out on the pier, the lad began pulling and pushing at
posts and pivots, and the King did not dare to stop him.
Presently the little house came floating up to the pier, and there were
only two minutes left of all the twenty-four hours.
“And now unlock the door,” cried the lad, “for within here sits the
Princess.”
The King took out his keys, and he fumbled and fumbled, and then he said
he had no key there to unlock it.
“Then if you have not, I have,” said the lad, and he raised his fist and
with one blow the door was shattered and burst open, and he stepped
inside,--and there was the Princess.
Then she rose up and threw her arms about him and kissed him, and she
told her father the lad was her own true love who had saved her from the
Trolls and had come all this way to find her, and how if she might not
have him for her husband, she would pine away with grief and longing.
When the King heard this, he could no longer refuse to let her marry the
lad, and indeed he was well enough pleased to have such a clever fellow
for a son-in-law, for the lad soon told him of the trick he had played
upon him.
So he and the Princess were married and with much rejoicing, and the lad
sent back to the Troll’s house for the lions that had been waiting for
him there all this time. And when they came, they were given a whole
park to roam about in, and the lad and the Princess lived happy forever
after, with no misfortunes to trouble them.
THE DUTIFUL DAUGHTER
A KOREAN STORY
There once lived in Korea a rich merchant and his wife who had no
children, though they greatly desired them and prayed every day that a
child might be granted them.
They had been married sixteen years and were no longer young, when the
wife had a wonderful dream.
In her dream she walked in a garden full of beauteous fruits and flowers
and singing birds, and as she walked, suddenly a star fell from heaven
into her bosom.
As soon as the wife awoke, she told this dream to her husband. “I feel
assured,” said she, “that this dream can mean only one thing, and that
is that heaven is about to send us a child, and that this child will be
as a star for beauty and wonder and grace.”
The merchant could hardly believe that this good fortune was really to
be theirs; but it was indeed as the wife had said, and in due time a
daughter was born to the couple, and this child was so beautiful that
she was the wonder of all who saw her.