The Violet Fairy Book (22 page)

The king had told one of the keepers to hang about for a little
and see what became of Jesper, not doubting, however, that as
soon as he saw the coast clear he would use his legs to the best
advantage, and never show face at the palace again. It was
therefore with great surprise and annoyance that he now learned
of the mysterious return of the hares and the likelihood of
Jesper carrying out his task with success.

'One of them must be got out of his hands by hook or crook,' said
he. 'I'll go and see the queen about it; she's good at devising
plans.'

A little later, a girl in a shabby dress came into the field and
walked up to Jesper.

'Do give me one of those hares,' she said; 'we have just got
visitors who are going to stay to dinner, and there's nothing we
can give them to eat.'

'I can't,' said Jesper. 'For one thing, they're not mine; for
another, a great deal depends on my having them all here in the
evening.'

But the girl (and she was a very pretty girl, though so shabbily
dressed) begged so hard for one of them that at last he said:

'Very well; give me a kiss and you shall have one of them.'

He could see that she didn't quite care for this, but she
consented to the bargain, and gave him the kiss, and went away
with a hare in her apron. Scarcely had she got outside the
field, however, when Jesper blew his whistle, and immediately the
hare wriggled out of its prison like an eel, and went back to its
master at the top of its speed.

Not long after this the hare-herd had another visit. This time
it was a stout old woman in the dress of a peasant, who also was
after a hare to provide a dinner for unexpected visitors. Jesper
again refused, but the old lady was so pressing, and would take
no refusal, that at last he said:

'Very well, you shall have a hare, and pay nothing for it either,
if you will only walk round me on tiptoe, look up to the sky, and
cackle like a hen.'

'Fie,' said she; 'what a ridiculous thing to ask anyone to do;
just think what the neighbours would say if they saw me. They
would think I had taken leave of my senses.'

'Just as you like,' said Jesper; 'you know best whether you want
the hare or not.'

There was no help for it, and a pretty figure the old lady made
in carrying out her task; the cackling wasn't very well done, but
Jesper said it would do, and gave her the hare. As soon as she
had left the field, the whistle was sounded again, and back came
long-legs-and-ears at a marvellous speed.

The next to appear on the same errand was a fat old fellow in the
dress of a groom: it was the royal livery he wore, and he
plainly thought a good deal of himself.

'Young man,' said he, 'I want one of those hares; name your
price, but I MUST have one of them.'

'All right,' said Jesper; 'you can have one at an easy rate.
Just stand on your head, whack your heels together, and cry
"Hurrah," and the hare is yours.'

'Eh, what!' said the old fellow; 'ME stand on my head, what an
idea!'

'Oh, very well,' said Jesper, 'you needn't unless you like, you
know; but then you won't get the hare.'

It went very much against the grain, one could see, but after
some efforts the old fellow had his head on the grass and his
heels in the air; the whacking and the 'Hurrah' were rather
feeble, but Jesper was not very exacting, and the hare was handed
over. Of course, it wasn't long in coming back again, like the
others.

Evening came, and home came Jesper with the hundred hares behind
him. Great was the wonder over all the palace, and the king and
queen seemed very much put out, but it was noticed that the
princess actually smiled to Jesper.

'Well, well,' said the king; 'you have done that very well
indeed. If you are as successful with a little task which I
shall give you to-morrow we shall consider the matter settled,
and you shall marry the princess.'

Next day it was announced that the task would be performed in the
great hall of the palace, and everyone was invited to come and
witness it. The king and queen sat on their thrones, with the
princess beside them, and the lords and ladies were all round the
hall. At a sign from the king, two servants carried in a large
empty tub, which they set down in the open space before the
throne, and Jesper was told to stand beside it.

'Now,' said the king, 'you must tell us as many undoubted truths
as will fill that tub, or you can't have the princess.'

'But how are we to know when the tub is full?' said Jesper.

'Don't you trouble about that,' said the king; 'that's my part of
the business.'

This seemed to everybody present rather unfair, but no one liked
to be the first to say so, and Jesper had to put the best face he
could on the matter, and begin his story.

'Yesterday,' he said, 'when I was herding the hares, there came
to me a girl, in a shabby dress, and begged me to give her one of
them. She got the hare, but she had to give me a kiss for it;
AND THAT GIRL WAS THE PRINCESS. Isn't that true?' said he,
looking at her.

The princess blushed and looked very uncomfortable, but had to
admit that it was true.

'That hasn't filled much of the tub,' said the king. 'Go on
again.'

'After that,' said Jesper, 'a stout old woman, in a peasant's
dress, came and begged for a hare. Before she got it, she had to
walk round me on tiptoe, turn up her eyes, and cackle like a hen;
AND THAT OLD WOMAN WAS THE QUEEN. Isn't that true, now?'

The queen turned very red and hot, but couldn't deny it.

'H-m,' said the king; 'that is something, but the tub isn't full
yet.' To the queen he whispered, 'I didn't think you would be
such a fool.'

'What did YOU do?' she whispered in return.

'Do you suppose I would do anything for HIM?' said the king, and
then hurriedly ordered Jesper to go on.

'In the next place,' said Jesper, 'there came a fat old fellow on
the same errand. He was very proud and dignified, but in order
to get the hare he actually stood on his head, whacked his heels
together, and cried "Hurrah"; and that old fellow was the—-'

'Stop, stop,' shouted the king; 'you needn't say another word;
the tub is full.' Then all the court applauded, and the king and
queen accepted Jesper as their son-in- law, and the princess was
very well pleased, for by this time she had quite fallen in love
with him, because he was so handsome and so clever. When the old
king got time to think over it, he was quite convinced that his
kingdom would be safe in Jesper's hands if he looked after the
people as well as he herded the hares.

(Scandinavian.)

On a bitter night somewhere between Christmas and the New Year, a
man set out to walk to the neighbouring village. It was not many
miles off, but the snow was so thick that there were no roads, or
walls, or hedges left to guide him, and very soon he lost his way
altogether, and was glad to get shelter from the wind behind a
thick juniper tree. Here he resolved to spend the night,
thinking that when the sun rose he would be able to see his path
again.

So he tucked his legs snugly under him like a hedgehog, rolled
himself up in his sheepskin, and went to sleep. How long he
slept, I cannot tell you, but after awhile he became aware that
some one was gently shaking him, while a stranger whispered, 'My
good man, get up! If you lie there any more, you will be buried
in the snow, and no one will ever know what became of you.'

The sleeper slowly raised his head from his furs, and opened his
heavy eyes. Near him stood a long thin man, holding in his hand
a young fir tree taller than himself. 'Come with me,' said the
man, 'a little way off we have made a large fire, and you will
rest far better there than out upon this moor.' The sleeper did
not wait to be asked twice, but rose at once and followed the
stranger. The snow was falling so fast that he could not see
three steps in front of him, till the stranger waved his staff,
when the drifts parted before them. Very soon they reached a
wood, and saw the friendly glow of a fire.

'What is your name?' asked the stranger, suddenly turning round.

'I am called Hans, the son of Long Hans,' said the peasant.

In front of the fire three men were sitting clothed in white,
just as if it was summer, and for about thirty feet all round
winter had been banished. The moss was dry and the plants green,
while the grass seemed all alive with the hum of bees and
cockchafers. But above the noise the son of Long Hans could hear
the whistling of the wind and the crackling of the branches as
they fell beneath the weight of the snow.

'Well! you son of Long Hans, isn't this more comfortable than
your juniper bush?' laughed the stranger, and for answer Hans
replied he could not thank his friend enough for having brought
him here, and, throwing off his sheepskin, rolled it up as a
pillow. Then, after a hot drink which warmed both their hearts,
they lay down on the ground. The stranger talked for a little to
the other men in a language Hans did not understand, and after
listening for a short time he once more fell asleep.

When he awoke, neither wood nor fire was to be seen, and he did
not know where he was. He rubbed his eyes, and began to recall
the events of the night, thinking he must have been dreaming; but
for all that, he could not make out how he came to be in this
place.

Suddenly a loud noise struck on his ear, and he felt the earth
tremble beneath his feet. Hans listened for a moment, then
resolved to go towards the place where the sound came from,
hoping he might come across some human being. He found himself
at length at the mouth of a rocky cave in which a fire seemed
burning. He entered, and saw a huge forge, and a crowd of men in
front of it, blowing bellows and wielding hammers, and to each
anvil were seven men, and a set of more comical smiths could not
be found if you searched all the world through! Their heads were
bigger than their little bodies, and their hammers twice the size
of themselves, but the strongest men on earth could not have
handled their iron clubs more stoutly or given lustier blows.

The little blacksmiths were clad in leather aprons, which covered
them from their necks to their feet in front, and left their
backs naked. On a high stool against the wall sat the man with
the pinewood staff, watching sharply the way the little fellows
did their work, and near him stood a large can, from which every
now and then the workers would come and take a drink. The master
no longer wore the white garments of the day before, but a black
jerkin, held in its place by a leathern girdle with huge clasps.

From time to time he would give his workmen a sign with his
staff, for it was useless to speak amid such a noise.

If any of them had noticed that there was a stranger present they
took no heed of him, but went on with what they were doing.
After some hours' hard labour came the time for rest, and they
all flung their hammers to the ground and trooped out of the
cave.

Then the master got down from his seat and said to Hans:

'I saw you come in, but the work was pressing, and I could not
stop to speak to you. To-day you must be my guest, and I will
show you something of the way in which I live. Wait here for a
moment, while I lay aside these dirty clothes.' With these words
he unlocked a door in the cave, and bade Hans pass in before him.

Oh, what riches and treasures met Hans' astonished eyes! Gold
and silver bars lay piled on the floor, and glittered so that you
could not look at them! Hans thought he would count them for
fun, and had already reached the five hundred and seventieth when
his host returned and cried, laughing:

'Do not try to count them, it would take too long; choose some of
the bars from the heap, as I should like to make you a present of
them.'

Hans did not wait to be asked twice, and stooped to pick up a bar
of gold, but though he put forth all his strength he could not
even move it with both hands, still less lift it off the ground.

'Why, you have no more power than a flea,' laughed the host; 'you
will have to content yourself with feasting your eyes upon them!'

So he bade Hans follow him through other rooms, till they entered
one bigger than a church, filled, like the rest, with gold and
silver. Hans wondered to see these vast riches, which might have
bought all the kingdoms of the world, and lay buried, useless, he
thought, to anyone.

'What is the reason,' he asked of his guide, 'that you gather up
these treasures here, where they can do good to nobody? If they
fell into the hands of men, everyone would be rich, and none need
work or suffer hunger.'

'And it is exactly for that reason,' answered he, 'that I must
keep these riches out of their way. The whole world would sink
to idleness if men were not forced to earn their daily bread. It
is only through work and care that man can ever hope to be good
for anything.'

Hans stared at these words, and at last he begged that his host
would tell him what use it was to anybody that this gold and
silver should lie mouldering there, and the owner of it be
continually trying to increase his treasure, which already
overflowed his store rooms.

'I am not really a man,' replied his guide, 'though I have the
outward form of one, but one of those beings to whom is given the
care of the world. It is my task and that of my workmen to
prepare under the earth the gold and silver, a small portion of
which finds its way every year to the upper world, but only just
enough to help them carry on their business. To none comes
wealth without trouble: we must first dig out the gold and mix
the grains with earth, clay, and sand. Then, after long and hard
seeking, it will be found in this state, by those who have good
luck or much patience. But, my friend, the hour of dinner is at
hand. If you wish to remain in this place, and feast your eyes
on this gold, then stay till I call you.'