The Violet Fairy Book (9 page)

How long this fearful stillness lasted I do not know, but the
prince gradually felt his heart turning to ice, his hair stood up
like bristles, and a cold chill was creeping down his spine, when
at last—oh, ecstasy!—a faint noise broke on his straining ears,
and this life of shadows suddenly became real. It sounded as if
a troop of horses were ploughing their way over a moor.

Then the greybeard opened his mouth, and said: 'The kettle is
boiling; we are expected at home.'

They walked on a little further, till the prince thought he heard
the grinding of a saw-mill, as if dozens of saws were working
together, but his guide observed, 'The grandmother is sleeping
soundly; listen how she snores.'

When they had climbed a hill which lay before them the prince saw
in the distance the house of his master, but it was so surrounded
with buildings of all kinds that the place looked more like a
village or even a small town. They reached it at last, and found
an empty kennel standing in front of the gate. 'Creep inside
this,' said the master, 'and wait while I go in and see my
grandmother. Like all very old people, she is very obstinate,
and cannot bear fresh faces about her.'

The prince crept tremblingly into the kennel, and began to regret
the daring which had brought him into this scrape.

By-and-by the master came back, and called him from his
hiding-place. Something had put out his temper, for with a frown
he said, 'Watch carefully our ways in the house, and beware of
making any mistake, or it will go ill with you. Keep your eyes
and ears open, and your mouth shut, obey without questions. Be
grateful if you will, but never speak unless you are spoken to.'

When the prince stepped over the threshold he caught sight of a
maiden of wonderful beauty, with brown eyes and fair curly hair.
'Well!' the young man said to himself, 'if the old fellow has
many daughters like that I should not mind being his son-in-law.
This one is just what I admire'; and he watched her lay the
table, bring in the food, and take her seat by the fire as if she
had never noticed that a strange man was present. Then she took
out a needle and thread, and began to darn her stockings. The
master sat at table alone, and invited neither his new servant
nor the maid to eat with him. Neither was the old grandmother
anywhere to be seen. His appetite was tremendous: he soon
cleared all the dishes, and ate enough to satisfy a dozen men.
When at last he could eat no more he said to the girl, 'Now you
can pick up the pieces, and take what is left in the iron pot for
your own dinner, but give the bones to the dog.'

The prince did not at all like the idea of dining off scraps,
which he helped the girl to pick up, but, after all, he found
that there was plenty to eat, and that the food was very good.
During the meal he stole many glances at the maiden, and would
even have spoken to her, but she gave him no encouragement.
Every time he opened his mouth for the purpose she looked at him
sternly, as if to say, 'Silence,' so he could only let his eyes
speak for him. Besides, the master was stretched on a bench by
the oven after his huge meal, and would have heard everything.

After supper that night, the old man said to the prince, 'For two
days you may rest from the fatigues of the journey, and look
about the house. But the day after to-morrow you must come with
me, and I will point out the work you have to do. The maid will
show you where you are to sleep.'

The prince thought, from this, he had leave to speak, but his
master turned on him with a face of thunder and exclaimed:

'You dog of a servant! If you disobey the laws of the house you
will soon find yourself a head shorter! Hold your tongue, and
leave me in peace.'

The girl made a sign to him to follow her, and, throwing open a
door, nodded to him to go in. He would have lingered a moment,
for he thought she looked sad, but dared not do so, for fear of
the old man's anger.

'It is impossible that she can be his daughter!' he said to
himself, 'for she has a kind heart. I am quite sure she must be
the same girl who was brought here instead of me, so I am bound
to risk my head in this mad adventure.' He got into bed, but it
was long before he fell asleep, and even then his dreams gave him
no rest. He seemed to be surrounded by dangers, and it was only
the power of the maiden who helped him through it all.

When he woke his first thoughts were for the girl, whom he found
hard at work. He drew water from the well and carried it to the
house for her, kindled the fire under the iron pot, and, in fact,
did everything that came into his head that could be of any use
to her. In the afternoon he went out, in order to learn
something of his new home, and wondered greatly not to come
across the old grandmother. In his rambles he came to the
farmyard, where a beautiful white horse had a stall to itself; in
another was a black cow with two white-faced calves, while the
clucking of geese, ducks, and hens reached him from a distance.

Breakfast, dinner, and supper were as savoury as before, and the
prince would have been quite content with his quarters had it not
been for the difficulty of keeping silence in the presence of the
maiden. On the evening of the second day he went, as he had been
told, to receive his orders for the following morning.

'I am going to set you something very easy to do to-morrow,'
said the old man when his servant entered. 'Take this scythe and
cut as much grass as the white horse will want for its day's
feed, and clean out its stall. If I come back and find the
manger empty it will go ill with you. So beware!'

The prince left the room, rejoicing in his heart, and saying to
himself, 'Well, I shall soon get through that! If I have never
yet handled either the plough or the scythe, at least I have
often watched the country people work them, and know how easy it
is.'

He was just going to open his door, when the maiden glided softly
past and whispered in his ear: 'What task has he set you?'

'For to-morrow,' answered the prince, 'it is really nothing at
all! Just to cut hay for the horse, and to clean out his stall!'

'Oh, luckless being!' sighed the girl; 'how will you ever get
through with it. The white horse, who is our master's
grandmother, is always hungry: it takes twenty men always mowing
to keep it in food for one day, and another twenty to clean out
its stall. How, then, do you expect to do it all by yourself?
But listen to me, and do what I tell you. It is your only
chance. When you have filled the manger as full as it will hold
you must weave a strong plait of the rushes which grow among the
meadow hay, and cut a thick peg of stout wood, and be sure that
the horse sees what you are doing. Then it will ask you what it
is for, and you will say, 'With this plait I intend to bind up
your mouth so that you cannot eat any more, and with this peg I
am going to keep you still in one spot, so that you cannot
scatter your corn and water all over the place!' After these
words the maiden went away as softly as she had come.

Early the next morning he set to work. His scythe danced through
the grass much more easily than he had hoped, and soon he had
enough to fill the manger. He put it in the crib, and returned
with a second supply, when to his horror he found the crib empty.

Then he knew that without the maiden's advice he would certainly
have been lost, and began to put it into practice. He took out
the rushes which had somehow got mixed up with the hay, and
plaited them quickly.

'My son, what are you doing?' asked the horse wonderingly.

'Oh, nothing!' replied he. 'Just weaving a chin strap to bind
your jaws together, in case you might wish to eat any more!'

The white horse sighed deeply when it heard this, and made up its
mind to be content with what it had eaten.

The youth next began to clean out the stall, and the horse knew
it had found a master; and by mid-day there was still fodder in
the manger, and the place was as clean as a new pin. He had
barely finished when in walked the old man, who stood astonished
at the door.

'Is it really you who have been clever enough to do that?' he
asked. 'Or has some one else given you a hint?'

'Oh, I have had no help,' replied the prince, 'except what my
poor weak head could give me.'

The old man frowned, and went away, and the prince rejoiced that
everything had turned out so well.

In the evening his master said, 'To-morrow I have no special task
to set you, but as the girl has a great deal to do in the house
you must milk the black cow for her. But take care you milk her
dry, or it may be the worse for you.'

'Well,' thought the prince as he went away, 'unless there is some
trick behind, this does not sound very hard. I have never milked
a cow before, but I have good strong fingers.'

He was very sleepy, and was just going toward his room, when the
maiden came to him and asked: 'What is your task to-morrow?'

'I am to help you,' he answered, 'and have nothing to do all day,
except to milk the black cow dry.'

'Oh, you are unlucky,' cried she. 'If you were to try from
morning till night you couldn't do it. There is only one way of
escaping the danger, and that is, when you go to milk her, take
with you a pan of burning coals and a pair of tongs. Place the
pan on the floor of the stall, and the tongs on the fire, and
blow with all your might, till the coals burn brightly. The
black cow will ask you what is the meaning of all this, and you
must answer what I will whisper to you.' And she stood on
tip-toe and whispered something in his ear, and then went away.

The dawn had scarcely reddened the sky when the prince jumped out
of bed, and, with the pan of coals in one hand and the milk pail
in the other, went straight to the cow's stall, and began to do
exactly as the maiden had told him the evening before.

The black cow watched him with surprise for some time, and then
said: 'What are you doing, sonny?'

'Oh, nothing,' answered he; 'I am only heating a pair of tongs in
case you may not feel inclined to give as much milk as I want.'

The cow sighed deeply, and looked at the milkman with fear, but
he took no notice, and milked briskly into the pail, till the cow
ran dry.

Just at that moment the old man entered the stable, and sat down
to milk the cow himself, but not a drop of milk could he get.
'Have you really managed it all yourself, or did somebody help
you?'

'I have nobody to help me,' answered the prince, 'but my own poor
head.' The old man got up from his seat and went away.

That night, when the prince went to his master to hear what his
next day's work was to be, the old man said: 'I have a little
hay-stack out in the meadow which must be brought in to dry.
To-morrow you will have to stack it all in the shed, and, as you
value your life, be careful not to leave the smallest strand
behind.' The prince was overjoyed to hear he had nothing worse
to do.

'To carry a little hay-rick requires no great skill,' thought he,
'and it will give me no trouble, for the horse will have to draw
it in. I am certainly not going to spare the old grandmother.'

By-and-by the maiden stole up to ask what task he had for the
next day.

The young man laughed, and said: 'It appears that I have got to
learn all kinds of farmer's work. To-morrow I have to carry a
hay-rick, and leave not a stalk in the meadow, and that is my
whole day's work!'

'Oh, you unlucky creature!' cried she; 'and how do you think you
are to do it. If you had all the men in the world to help you,
you could not clear off this one little hay-rick in a week. The
instant you have thrown down the hay at the top, it will take
root again from below. But listen to what I say. You must steal
out at daybreak to-morrow and bring out the white horse and some
good strong ropes. Then get on the hay-stack, put the ropes
round it, and harness the horse to the ropes. When you are
ready, climb up the hay-stack and begin to count one, two, three.

The horse will ask you what you are counting, and you must be
sure to answer what I whisper to you.'

So the maiden whispered something in his ear, and left the room.
And the prince knew nothing better to do than to get into bed.

He slept soundly, and it was still almost dark when he got up and
proceeded to carry out the instructions given him by the girl.
First he chose some stout ropes, and then he led the horse out of
the stable and rode it to the hay-stack, which was made up of
fifty cartloads, so that it could hardly be called 'a little
one.' The prince did all that the maiden had told him, and when
at last he was seated on top of the rick, and had counted up to
twenty, he heard the horse ask in amazement: 'What are you
counting up there, my son?'

'Oh, nothing,' said he, 'I was just amusing myself with counting
the packs of wolves in the forest, but there are really so many
of them that I don't think I should ever be done.'

The word 'wolf' was hardly out of his mouth than the white horse
was off like the wind, so that in the twinkling of an eye it had
reached the shed, dragging the hay-stack behind it. The master
was dumb with surprise as he came in after breakfast and found
his man's day's work quite done.

'Was it really you who were so clever?' asked he. 'Or did some
one give you good advice?'

'Oh, I have only myself to take counsel with,' said the prince,
and the old man went away, shaking his head.

Late in the evening the prince went to his master to learn what
he was to do next day.

'To-morrow,' said the old man, 'you must bring the white-headed
calf to the meadow, and, as you value your life, take care it
does not escape from you.'

The prince answered nothing, but thought, 'Well, most peasants of
nineteen have got a whole herd to look after, so surely I can
manage one.' And he went towards his room, where the maiden met
him.