He replies, "Yes, yes," and he threw him the ball.
A moment after, the ball goes again to the Tartaro. He asks for it
again; and the Tartaro says:
"If you will deliver me, I will give it you."
The boy says, "Yes, yes," takes his ball, and goes off.
The ball goes there for the third time, but the Tartaro will not give
it before he is let out. The boy says that he has not the key. The
Tartaro says to him:
"Go to your mother, and tell her to look in your right ear, because
something hurts you there. Your mother will have the key in her left
pocket, and take it out."
The boy goes, and does as the Tartaro had told him. He takes the key
from his mother, and delivers the Tartaro. When he was letting him go,
he said to him:
"What shall I do with the key now? I am undone."
The Tartaro says to him:
"Go again to your mother, and tell her that your left ear hurts you,
and ask her to look, and you will slip the key into her pocket."
The Tartaro tells him, too, that he will soon have need of him,
and that he will only have to call him, and he will be his servant
for ever.
He puts the key back; and everyone came to the dinner. When they
had eaten well, the king said to them that they must go and see this
curious thing. He takes them all with him. When they are come to the
stable, he finds it empty. Judge of the anger of this king, and of
his shame. He said:
"I should like to eat the heart, half cooked, and without salt,
of him who has let my beast go."
Some time afterwards the two brothers quarreled in presence of their
mother, and one said to the other:
"I will tell our father about the affair of the Tartaro."
When the mother heard that, she was afraid for her son, and said
to him:
"Take as much money as you wish."
And she gave him the Fleur-de-lis. [21] "By this you will be known
everywhere as the son of a king."
Petit Yorge [22] goes off, then, far, far, far away. He spends
and squanders all his money, and does not know what to do more. He
remembers the Tartaro, and calls him directly. He comes, and Petit
Yorge tells him all his misfortunes; that he has not a penny left, and
that he does not know what will become of him. The Tartaro says to him:
"When you have gone a short way from here you will come to a city. A
king lives there. You will go to his house, and they will take you as
gardener. You will pull up everything that there is in the garden, and
the next day everything will come up more beautiful than before. Also,
three beautiful flowers will spring up, and you will carry them to
the three daughters of the king, and you will give the most beautiful
to the youngest daughter." [23]
He goes off, then, as he had told him, and he asks them if they want a
gardener. They say, "Yes, indeed, very much." He goes to the garden,
and pulls up the fine cabbages, and the beautiful leeks as well. The
youngest of the king's daughters sees him, and she tells it to her
father, and her father says to her:
"Let him alone, we will see what he will do afterwards." And, indeed,
the next day he sees cabbages and leeks such as he had never seen
before. Petit Yorge takes a flower to each of the young ladies. The
eldest said:
"I have a flower that the gardener has brought me, which has not its
equal in the world."
And the second says that she has one, too, and that no one has ever
seen one so beautiful. And the youngest said that hers was still more
beautiful than theirs, and the others confess it, too. The youngest of
the young ladies found the gardener very much to her taste. Every day
she used to bring him his dinner. After a certain time she said to him,
"You must marry me."
The lad says to her,
"That is impossible. The king would not like such a marriage."
The young girl says, too,
"Well, indeed, it is hardly worth while. In eight days I shall be
eaten by the serpent."
For eight days she brought him his dinner again. In the evening she
tells him that it is for the last time that she brought it. The young
man tells her, "No," that she will bring it again; that somebody will
help her.
The next day Petit Yorge goes off at eight o'clock to call the
Tartaro. He tells him what has happened. The Tartaro gives him a fine
horse, a handsome dress, and a sword, and tells him to go to such a
spot, and to open the carriage door with his sword, and that he will
cut off two of the serpent's heads. Petit Yorge goes off to the said
spot. He finds the young lady in the carriage. He bids her open the
door. The young lady says that she cannot open it--that there are
seven doors, and that he had better go away; that it is enough for
one person to be eaten.
Petit Yorge opens the doors with his sword, and sat down by the young
lady's side. He tells her that he has hurt his ear, and asks her to
look at it; [24] and at the same time he cuts off seven pieces of
the seven robes which she wore, without the young lady seeing him. At
the same instant comes the serpent, and says to him,
"Instead of one, I shall have three to eat."
Petit Yorge leaps on his horse, and says to him,
"You will not touch one; you shall not have one of us."
And they begin to fight. With his sword he cuts off one head, and the
horse with his feet another; [25] and the serpent asks quarter till the
next day. Petit Yorge leaves the young lady there. The young lady is
full of joy; she wishes to take the young man home with her. He will
not go by any means (he says); that he cannot; that he has made a vow
to go to Rome; but he tells her that "to-morrow my brother will come,
and he will be able to do something, too." The young lady goes home,
and Petit Yorge to his garden. At noon she comes to him with the
dinner, and Petit Yorge says to her,
"You see that it has really happened as I told you--he has not
eaten you."
"No, but to-morrow he will eat me. How can it be otherwise?"
"No, no! To-morrow you will bring me my dinner again. Some help will
come to you."
The next day Petit Yorge goes off at eight o'clock to the Tartaro,
who gives him a new horse, a different dress, and a fine sword. At
ten o'clock he arrives where the young lady is. He bids her open the
door. But she says to him that she cannot in any way open fourteen
doors; she is there, and that she cannot open them, and he should go
away; that it is enough for one to be eaten; that she is grieved to see
him there. As soon as he has touched them with his sword, the fourteen
doors fly open. He sits down by the side of the young lady, and tells
her to look behind his ear, for it hurts him. At the same time he
cuts off fourteen bits of the fourteen dresses she was wearing. As
soon as he had done that, the serpent comes, saying joyfully,
"I shall eat not one, but three."