Tales of Folk and Fairies Part 5

There was the lad still seated on the nag in the swamp. "What a fool he is," they cried. "He must have been sitting there all night." Then they rode on and left him.

But the lad ran with haste to the wood and took his armor from the tree and put it on. He shook the bridle, and the black steed came galloping up to him. The lad mounted and rode away to the battle field. The King's forces were falling back, but the lad attacked the enemy so fiercely that they were put to rout. Every one wondered who the hero could be, but as soon as the battle was won he rode away so swiftly that no one had a chance to question him and no one knew what had become of him. "If I could but find him," said the King, "I would honor him as I have never honored any one, for such a hero never was seen before."

But the lad hastened back to the wood; he laid aside his armor and turned the black steed loose. Then he put on his wig again and ran back to the swamp and mounted the sorry nag.

When the King's forces came riding home, there sat the gardener's ugly lad, whipping his sorry nag and crying "Hie! Hie! Now will you go?"

The courtiers looked upon him with scorn. "Why does he not go home and get to work?" they cried. "Such a scarecrow is an insult to all who see him." One of the courtiers, more ill-natured than the rest, shot an arrow at him, and it pierced his leg so the blood flowed. The lad cried out so that it was pitiful to hear him. The King felt sorry for him, ugly though he was, and drew out his own royal handkerchief and threw it to him.

"There, Sirrah! Take that and bind up thy wound!" he cried.

The lad took the handkerchief and bound it about his leg, and so the bleeding was stopped.

The next day, when the courtiers rode by, there sat the lad still upon his broken-down nag, shouting to it as if to urge it forward, and his leg was tied up with the b.l.o.o.d.y kerchief, and the King's own initials were on the kerchief in letters of gold.

The courtiers did not dare to jeer at him this time, because the King had been kind to him, but they turned their faces aside so as not to see him.

As soon as they had gone the lad sprang down and ran to the wood and put on his armor and shook the bridle for the black steed, but he was in such haste, that he forgot the kerchief that he had used to bind up his wound, and so, when he rode out upon the battle field, he had it still tied about his leg.

That day the lad fought more fiercely than ever before, and it was well he did, for otherwise the King's forces would certainly have been defeated. Already they were in retreat when the lad rode forth upon the field. But at sight of him they took heart again, and he led them on and did not stop or stay till he came to where the enemy's leader was, and with one blow of his sword cut off his head.

Then all the enemy's forces fled back, and the King's men pursued after them and cut many of them to pieces, and the rest were glad to get safely back into their own country.

After that the lad would have ridden away as before, but this the King would not allow. He called to him and rode up to where he was, and when he saw the b.l.o.o.d.y kerchief tied about the stranger's leg he knew he must be the very one he had left sitting on the old nag in the swamp awhile back.

This the lad could not deny, and when the King questioned him he told him everything.

Then the King said, "Though you are only a gardener's lad still you are a mighty hero, and the hand of the Princess shall be yours. You shall marry her, and after I die you shall rule over the kingdom in my stead."

You may guess the lad did not say no to that, for he had seen the Princess sitting at her window, and just from looking at her there he loved her with all his heart.

So the King and the courtiers rode home with the lad in their midst, and when the Princess heard she was to marry him she was filled with joy, for she recognized him at once as the gardener's boy who had worked beneath her window.

Then all was joy and happiness. A great feast was prepared, and the lad and the Princess were married with the greatest magnificence. But first the lad rubbed his leg with the ointment and then it became quite well again; for it would never have done for him to go limping to his own wedding.

Now as soon as he was married he went out to the stable to tell it to the black steed. He found the horse sad and sorrowful. It stood drooping and would not raise its head or speak when he entered the stall.

The lad was troubled at this. "What ails you, my steed, that you stand there so sorrowful when all around rejoice?" asked he.

"I am sick at heart," answered the steed, "and you alone can cure me of my sickness."

"How is that?" asked the lad.

"Promise to do whatsoever I ask of you, and I will tell you."

"I promise," replied the lad, "for there is nothing I would not do for you."

"Then take your sword and cut off my head," said the steed.

When the lad heard this he was horrified. "What is this you ask of me?" he cried. "All that I have I owe to you, and shall I in return do you such an injury?"

But the black horse reminded him that he had promised. "If you do not do as I ask you," said he, "then I shall know that you are a coward who dares not keep his word."

The youth could not refuse after that. He was obliged to do as the horse bade him, but the tears dimmed his eyes so that he could scarcely see. He drew his sword and cut off the horse's head. At once, instead of a coal-black steed, a handsome young Prince stood before him. The lad could scarce believe his eyes. He stared about him, wondering what had become of the horse.

"There is no need to look for the black steed," said the princely stranger, "for I am he." He then told the lad that he was the son of the King of a neighboring country. An enemy had risen up and slain the King and had given the Prince to the black master who had turned him into a horse and taken him away to his castle. "You have rescued me from the enchantment, and now I am free to claim my land again," said the Prince. He then told the lad that the enemy King whom he had lately slain in battle was the very one who had taken his kingdom from him.

Then the Prince went back with the lad to the palace, and was introduced to the King and the Princess and all the court.

After that the lad and his bride and the Prince rode forth with a great retinue into the Prince's own country, and his people received him with joy, and he and the lad lived in the greatest love and friends.h.i.+p forever after.

THE WISE GIRL

A SERBIAN STORY

There was once a girl who was wiser than the King and all his councilors; there never was anything like it. Her father was so proud of her that he boasted about her cleverness at home and abroad. He could not keep his tongue still about it. One day he was boasting to one of his neighbors, and he said, "The girl is so clever that not even the King himself could ask her a question she couldn't answer, or read her a riddle she couldn't unravel."

Now it so chanced the King was sitting at a window near by, and he overheard what the girl's father was saying. The next day he sent for the man to come before him. "I hear you have a daughter who is so clever that no one in the kingdom can equal her; and is that so?"

asked the King.

Yes, it was no more than the truth. Too much could not be said of her wit and cleverness.

That was well, and the King was glad to hear it. He had thirty eggs; they were fresh and good, but it would take a clever person to hatch chickens out of them. He then bade his chancellor get the eggs and give them to the man.

"Take these home to your daughter," said the King, "and bid her hatch them out for me. If she succeeds she shall have a bag of money for her pains, but if she fails you shall be beaten as a vain boaster."

The man was troubled when he heard this. Still his daughter was so clever he was almost sure she could hatch out the eggs. He carried them home to her and told her exactly what the King had said, and it did not take the girl long to find out that the eggs had been boiled.

When she told her father that, he made a great to-do. That was a pretty trick for the King to have played upon him. Now he would have to take a beating and all the neighbors would hear about it. Would to Heaven he had never had a daughter at all if that was what came of it.

The girl, however, bade him be of good cheer. "Go to bed and sleep quietly," said she. "I will think of some way out of the trouble. No harm shall come to you, even though I have to go to the palace myself and take the beating in your place."

The next day the girl gave her father a bag of boiled beans and bade him take them out to a certain place where the King rode by every day.

"Wait until you see him coming," said she, "and then begin to sow the beans." At the same time he was to call out this, that, and the other so loudly that the King could not help but hear him.

The man took the bag of beans and went out to the field his daughter had spoken of. He waited until he saw the King coming, and then he began to sow the beans, and at the same time to cry aloud, "Come sun, come rain! Heaven grant that these boiled beans may yield me a good crop."

The King was surprised that any one should be so stupid as to think boiled beans would grow and yield a crop. He did not recognize the man, for he had only seen him once, and he stopped his horse to speak to him. "My poor man," said he, "how can you expect boiled beans to grow? Do you not know that that is impossible?"

"Whatever the King commands should be possible," answered the man, "and if chickens can hatch from boiled eggs why should not boiled beans yield a crop?"

When the King heard this he looked at the man more closely, and then he recognized him as the father of the clever daughter.

"You have indeed a clever daughter," said he. "Take your beans home and bring me back the eggs I gave you."