The Violet Fairy Book (21 page)

The princess had finished all she had to say, and now it depended
on the young man to do his part. He hid the knife in the folds
of his girdle, mounted his horse, and rode off in search of the
meadow. This he found without much difficulty, but the horses
were all so shy that they galloped away directly he approached
them. Then he drew his knife, and held it up towards the sun,
and directly there shone such a glory that the whole meadow was
bathed in it. From all sides the horses rushed pressing round,
and each one that passed him fell on its knees to do him honour.

But he only chose from them all the three that the emperor had
described. These he secured by a silken rope to his own horse,
and then looked about for the cypress tree. It was standing by
itself in one corner, and in a moment he was beside it, tearing
away the earth with his knife. Deeper and deeper he dug, till
far down, below the roots of brass, his knife struck upon the
buried treasure, which lay heaped up in bags all around. With a
great effort he lifted them from their hiding place, and laid
them one by one on his horses' backs, and when they could carry
no more he led them back to the emperor. And when the emperor
saw him, he wondered, but never guessed how it was the young man
had been too clever for him, till the betrothal ceremony was
over. Then he asked his newly made son-in-law what dowry he
would require with his bride. To which the bridegroom made
answer, 'Noble emperor! all I desire is that I may have your
daughter for my wife, and enjoy for ever the use of your
enchanted knife.'

(Volksmarchen der Serben.)

There was once a king who ruled over a kingdom somewhere between
sunrise and sunset. It was as small as kingdoms usually were in
old times, and when the king went up to the roof of his palace
and took a look round he could see to the ends of it in every
direction. But as it was all his own, he was very proud of it,
and often wondered how it would get along without him. He had
only one child, and that was a daughter, so he foresaw that she
must be provided with a husband who would be fit to be king after
him. Where to find one rich enough and clever enough to be a
suitable match for the princess was what troubled him, and often
kept him awake at night.

At last he devised a plan. He made a proclamation over all his
kingdom (and asked his nearest neighbours to publish it in theirs
as well) that whoever could bring him a dozen of the finest
pearls the king had ever seen, and could perform certain tasks
that would be set him, should have his daughter in marriage and
in due time succeed to the throne. The pearls, he thought, could
only be brought by a very wealthy man, and the tasks would
require unusual talents to accomplish them.

There were plenty who tried to fulfil the terms which the king
proposed. Rich merchants and foreign princes presented
themselves one after the other, so that some days the number of
them was quite annoying; but, though they could all produce
magnificent pearls, not one of them could perform even the
simplest of the tasks set them. Some turned up, too, who were
mere adventurers, and tried to deceive the old king with
imitation pearls; but he was not to be taken in so easily, and
they were soon sent about their business. At the end of several
weeks the stream of suitors began to fall off, and still there
was no prospect of a suitable son-in-law.

Now it so happened that in a little corner of the king's
dominions, beside the sea, there lived a poor fisher, who had
three sons, and their names were Peter, Paul, and Jesper. Peter
and Paul were grown men, while Jesper was just coming to manhood.

The two elder brothers were much bigger and stronger than the
youngest, but Jesper was far the cleverest of the three, though
neither Peter nor Paul would admit this. It was a fact, however,
as we shall see in the course of our story.

One day the fisherman went out fishing, and among his catch for
the day he brought home three dozen oysters. When these were
opened, every shell was found to contain a large and beautiful
pearl. Hereupon the three brothers, at one and the same moment,
fell upon the idea of offering themselves as suitors for the
princess. After some discussion, it was agreed that the pearls
should be divided by lot, and that each should have his chance in
the order of his age: of course, if the oldest was successful
the other two would be saved the trouble of trying.

Next morning Peter put his pearls in a little basket, and set off
for the king's palace. He had not gone far on his way when he
came upon the King of the Ants and the King of the Beetles, who,
with their armies behind them, were facing each other and
preparing for battle.

'Come and help me,' said the King of the Ants; 'the beetles are
too big for us. I may help you some day in return.'

'I have no time to waste on other people's affairs,' said Peter;
'just fight away as best you can;' and with that he walked off
and left them.

A little further on the way he met an old woman.

'Good morning, young man,' said she; 'you are early astir. What
have you got in your basket?'

'Cinders,' said Peter promptly, and walked on, adding to himself,
'Take that for being so inquisitive.'

'Very well, cinders be it,' the old woman called after him, but
he pretended not to hear her.

Very soon he reached the palace, and was at once brought before
the king. When he took the cover off the basket, the king and
all his courtiers said with one voice that these were the finest
pearls they had ever seen, and they could not take their eyes off
them. But then a strange thing happened: the pearls began to
lose their whiteness and grew quite dim in colour; then they grew
blacker and blacker till at last they were just like so many
cinders. Peter was so amazed that he could say nothing for
himself, but the king said quite enough for both, and Peter was
glad to get away home again as fast as his legs would carry him.
To his father and brothers, however, he gave no account of his
attempt, except that it had been a failure.

Next day Paul set out to try his luck. He soon came upon the
King of the Ants and the King of the Beetles, who with their
armies had encamped on the field of battle all night, and were
ready to begin the fight again.

'Come and help me,' said the King of the Ants; 'we got the worst
of it yesterday. I may help you some day in return.'

'I don't care though you get the worst of it to-day too,' said
Paul. 'I have more important business on hand than mixing myself
up in your quarrels.'

So he walked on, and presently the same old woman met him. 'Good
morning,' said she; 'what have YOU got in your basket?'

'Cinders,' said Paul, who was quite as insolent as his brother,
and quite as anxious to teach other people good manners.

'Very well, cinders be it,' the old woman shouted after him, but
Paul neither looked back nor answered her. He thought more of
what she said, however, after his pearls also turned to cinders
before the eyes of king and court: then he lost no time in
getting home again, and was very sulky when asked how he had
succeeded.

The third day came, and with it came Jesper's turn to try his
fortune. He got up and had his breakfast, while Peter and Paul
lay in bed and made rude remarks, telling him that he would come
back quicker than he went, for if they had failed it could not be
supposed that he would succeed. Jesper made no reply, but put
his pearls in the little basket and walked off.

The King of the Ants and the King of the Beetles were again
marshalling their hosts, but the ants were greatly reduced in
numbers, and had little hope of holding out that day.

'Come and help us,' said their king to Jesper, 'or we shall be
completely defeated. I may help you some day in return.'

Now Jesper had always heard the ants spoken of as clever and
industrious little creatures, while he never heard anyone say a
good word for the beetles, so he agreed to give the wished-for
help. At the first charge he made, the ranks of the beetles
broke and fled in dismay, and those escaped best that were
nearest a hole, and could get into it before Jesper's boots came
down upon them. In a few minutes the ants had the field all to
themselves; and their king made quite an eloquent speech to
Jesper, thanking him for the service he had done them, and
promising to assist him in any difficulty.

'Just call on me when you want me,' he said, 'where-ever you
are. I'm never far away from anywhere, and if I can possibly
help you, I shall not fail to do it.'

Jesper was inclined to laugh at this, but he kept a grave face,
said he would remember the offer, and walked on. At a turn of
the road he suddenly came upon the old woman. 'Good morning,'
said she; 'what have YOU got in your basket?'

'Pearls,' said Jesper; 'I'm going to the palace to win the
princess with them.' And in case she might not believe him, he
lifted the cover and let her see them.

'Beautiful,' said the old woman; 'very beautiful indeed; but they
will go a very little way towards winning the princess, unless
you can also perform the tasks that are set you. However,' she
said, 'I see you have brought something with you to eat. Won't
you give that to me: you are sure to get a good dinner at the
palace.'

'Yes, of course,' said Jesper, 'I hadn't thought of that'; and he
handed over the whole of his lunch to the old woman.

He had already taken a few steps on the way again, when the old
woman called him back.

'Here,' she said; 'take this whistle in return for your lunch.
It isn't much to look at, but if you blow it, anything that you
have lost or that has been taken from you will find its way back
to you in a moment.'

Jesper thanked her for the whistle, though he did not see of what
use it was to be to him just then, and held on his way to the
palace.

When Jesper presented his pearls to the king there were
exclamations of wonder and delight from everyone who saw them.
It was not pleasant, however, to discover that Jesper was a mere
fisher-lad; that wasn't the kind of son-in-law that the king had
expected, and he said so to the queen.

'Never mind,' said she, 'you can easily set him such tasks as he
will never be able to perform: we shall soon get rid of him.'

'Yes, of course,' said the king; 'really I forget things
nowadays, with all the bustle we have had of late.'

That day Jesper dined with the king and queen and their nobles,
and at night was put into a bedroom grander than anything of the
kind he had ever seen. It was all so new to him that he could
not sleep a wink, especially as he was always wondering what kind
of tasks would be set him to do, and whether he would be able to
perform them. In spite of the softness of the bed, he was very
glad when morning came at last.

After breakfast was over, the king said to Jesper, 'Just come
with me, and I'll show you what you must do first.' He led him
out to the barn, and there in the middle of the floor was a large
pile of grain. 'Here,' said the king, 'you have a mixed heap of
wheat, barley, oats, and rye, a sackful of each. By an hour
before sunset you must have these sorted out into four heaps, and
if a single grain is found to be in a wrong heap you have no
further chance of marrying my daughter. I shall lock the door,
so that no one can get in to assist you, and I shall return at
the appointed time to see how you have succeeded.'

The king walked off, and Jesper looked in despair at the task
before him. Then he sat down and tried what he could do at it,
but it was soon very clear that single- handed he could never
hope to accomplish it in the time. Assistance was out of the
question—unless, he suddenly thought—unless the King of the
Ants could help. On him he began to call, and before many
minutes had passed that royal personage made his appearance.
Jesper explained the trouble he was in.

'Is that all?' said the ant; 'we shall soon put that to rights.'
He gave the royal signal, and in a minute or two a stream of ants
came pouring into the barn, who under the king's orders set to
work to separate the grain into the proper heaps.

Jesper watched them for a while, but through the continual
movement of the little creatures, and his not having slept during
the previous night, he soon fell sound asleep. When he woke
again, the king had just come into the barn, and was amazed to
find that not only was the task accomplished, but that Jesper had
found time to take a nap as well.

'Wonderful,' said he; 'I couldn't have believed it possible.
However, the hardest is yet to come, as you will see to-morrow.'

Jesper thought so too when the next day's task was set before
him. The king's gamekeepers had caught a hundred live hares,
which were to be let loose in a large meadow, and there Jesper
must herd them all day, and bring them safely home in the
evening: if even one were missing, he must give up all thought
of marrying the princess. Before he had quite grasped the fact
that this was an impossible task, the keepers had opened the
sacks in which the hares were brought to the field, and, with a
whisk of the short tail and a flap of the long ears, each one of
the hundred flew in a different direction.

'Now,' said the king, 'as he walked away, 'let's see what your
cleverness can do here.'

Jesper stared round him in bewilderment, and having nothing
better to do with his hands, thrust them into his pockets, as he
was in the habit of doing. Here he found something which turned
out to be the whistle given to him by the old woman. He
remembered what she had said about the virtues of the whistle,
but was rather doubtful whether its powers would extend to a
hundred hares, each of which had gone in a different direction
and might be several miles distant by this time. However, he
blew the whistle, and in a few minutes the hares came bounding
through the hedge on all the four sides of the field, and before
long were all sitting round him in a circle. After that, Jesper
allowed them to run about as they pleased, so long as they stayed
in the field.