He went into the forest to the
raven and said, “I let thee live on, so now tell me where I am to hide
myself, so that the King’s daughter shall not see me.” The raven hung
his head and thought it over for a longtime. At length he croaked, “I
have it.” He fetched an egg out of his nest, cut it into two parts, and
shut the youth inside it; then made it whole again, and seated himself
on it. When the King’s daughter went to the first window she could not
discover him, nor could she from the others, and she began to be
uneasy, but from the eleventh she saw him. She ordered the raven to be
shot, and the egg to be brought and broken, and the youth was forced to
come out. She said, “For once thou art excused, but if thou dost not do
better than this, thou art lost!”

Next day he went to the lake, called the fish to him and said, “I
suffered thee to live, now tell me where to hide myself so that the
King’s daughter may not see me.” The fish thought for a while, and at
last cried, “I have it! I will shut thee up in my stomach.” He
swallowed him, and went down to the bottom of the lake. The King’s
daughter looked through her windows, and even from the eleventh did not
see him, and was alarmed; but at length from the twelfth she saw him. She ordered the fish to be caught and killed, and then the youth
appeared. Every one can imagine what a state of mind he was in. She
said, “Twice thou art forgiven, but be sure that thy head will be set
on the hundredth post.”

On the last day, he went with a heavy heart into the country, and met
the fox. “Thou knowest how to find all kinds of hiding-places,” said
he; “I let thee live, now advise me where I shall hide myself so that
the King’s daughter shall not discover me.” “That’s a hard task,”
answered the fox, looking very thoughtful. At length he cried, “I have
it!” and went with him to a spring, dipped himself in it, and came out
as a stall-keeper in the market, and dealer in animals. The youth had
to dip himself in the water also, and was changed into a small
sea-hare. The merchant went into the town, and showed the pretty little
animal, and many persons gathered together to see it. At length the
King’s daughter came likewise, and as she liked it very much, she
bought it, and gave the merchant a good deal of money for it. Before he
gave it over to her, he said to it, “When the King’s daughter goes to
the window, creep quickly under the braids of her hair.” And now the
time arrived when she was to search for him. She went to one window
after another in turn, from the first to the eleventh, and did not see
him. When she did not see him from the twelfth either, she was full of
anxiety and anger, and shut it down with such violence that the glass
in every window shivered into a thousand pieces, and the whole castle
shook. She went back and felt the sea-hare beneath the braids of her hair. Then she seized it, and threw it on the ground exclaiming, “Away with
thee, get out of my sight!” It ran to the merchant, and both of them
hurried to the spring, wherein they plunged, and received back their
true forms. The youth thanked the fox, and said, “The raven and the
fish are idiots compared with thee; thou knowest the right tune to
play, there is no denying that!”

The youth went straight to the palace. The princess was already
expecting him, and accommodated herself to her destiny. The wedding was
solemnized, and now he was king, and lord of all the kingdom. He never
told her where he had concealed himself for the third time, and who had
helped him, so she believed that he had done everything by his own
skill, and she had a great respect for him, for she thought to herself,
“He is able to do more than I.”



192 The Master-Thief

One day an old man and his wife were sitting in front of a miserable
house resting a while from their work. Suddenly a splendid carriage
with four black horses came driving up, and a richly-dressed man
descended from it. The peasant stood up, went to the great man, and
asked what he wanted, and in what way he could be useful to him? The
stranger stretched out his hand to the old man, and said, “I want
nothing but to enjoy for once a country dish; cook me some potatoes, in
the way you always have them, and then I will sit down at your table
and eat them with pleasure.” The peasant smiled and said, “You are a
count or a prince, or perhaps even a duke; noble gentlemen often have
such fancies, but you shall have your wish.” The wife went into the
kitchen, and began to wash and rub the potatoes, and to make them into
balls, as they are eaten by the country-folks. Whilst she was busy with
this work, the peasant said to the stranger, “Come into my garden with
me for a while, I have still something to do there.” He had dug some
holes in the garden, and now wanted to plant some trees in them. “Have
you no children,” asked the stranger, “who could help you with your
work?” “No,” answered the peasant, “I had a son, it is true, but it is
long since he went out into the world. He was a ne’er-do-well; sharp,
and knowing, but he would learn nothing and was full of bad tricks, at
last he ran away from me, and since then I have heard nothing of him.”

The old man took a young tree, put it in a hole, drove in a post beside
it, and when he had shovelled in some earth and had trampled it firmly
down, he tied the stem of the tree above, below, and in the middle,
fast to the post by a rope of straw. “But tell me,” said the stranger,
“why you don’t tie that crooked knotted tree, which is lying in the
corner there, bent down almost to the ground, to a post also that it
may grow straight, as well as these?” The old man smiled and said,
“Sir, you speak according to your knowledge, it is easy to see that you
are not familiar with gardening. That tree there is old, and
mis-shapen, no one can make it straight now. Trees must be trained
while they are young.” “That is how it was with your son,” said the
stranger, “if you had trained him while he was still young, he would
not have run away; now he too must have grown hard and mis-shapen.”
“Truly it is a long time since he went away,” replied the old man, “he
must have changed.” “Would you know him again if he were to come to
you?” asked the stranger. “Hardly by his face,” replied the peasant,
“but he has a mark about him, a birth-mark on his shoulder, that looks
like a bean.” When he had said that the stranger pulled off his coat,
bared his shoulder, and showed the peasant the bean. “Good God!” cried
the old man, “Thou art really my son!” and love for his child stirred
in his heart. “But,” he added, “how canst thou be my son, thou hast
become a great lord and livest in wealth and luxury? How hast thou
contrived to do that?” “Ah, father,” answered the son, “the young tree
was bound to no post and has grown crooked, now it is too old, it will
never be straight again. How have I got all that? I have become a
thief, but do not be alarmed, I am a master-thief.