Then the peasants were astonished,
and said, “Peasant, from whence comest thou? Hast thou come out of the
water?” “Yes, truly,” replied the peasant, “I sank deep, deep down,
until at last I got to the bottom; I pushed the bottom out of the
barrel, and crept out, and there were pretty meadows on which a number
of lambs were feeding, and from thence I brought this flock away with
me.” Said the peasants, “Are there any more there?” “Oh, yes,” said he,
“more than I could do anything with.” Then the peasants made up their
minds that they too would fetch some sheep for themselves, a flock
apiece, but the Mayor said, “I come first.” So they went to the water
together, and just then there were some of the small fleecy clouds in
the blue sky, which are called little lambs, and they were reflected in
the water, whereupon the peasants cried, “We already see the sheep down
below!” The Mayor pressed forward and said, “I will go down first, and
look about me, and if things promise well I’ll call you.” So he jumped
in; splash! went the water; he made a sound as if he were calling them,
and the whole crowd plunged in after him as one man. Then the entire
village was dead, and the small peasant, as sole heir, became a rich
man. 62 The Queen Bee

Two kings’ sons once went out in search of adventures, and fell into a
wild, disorderly way of living, so that they never came home again. The
youngest, who was called Simpleton, set out to seek his brothers, but
when at length he found them they mocked him for thinking that he with
his simplicity could get through the world, when they two could not
make their way, and yet were so much cleverer. They all three travelled
away together, and came to an ant-hill. The two elder wanted to destroy
it, to see the little ants creeping about in their terror, and carrying
their eggs away, but Simpleton said, “Leave the creatures in peace; I
will not allow you to disturb them.” Then they went onwards and came to
a lake, on which a great number of ducks were swimming. The two
brothers wanted to catch a couple and roast them, but Simpleton would
not permit it, and said, “Leave the creatures in peace, I will not
suffer you to kill them.” At length they came to a bee’s nest, in which
there was so much honey that it ran out of the trunk of the tree where
it was. The two wanted to make a fire beneath the tree, and suffocate
the bees in order to take away the honey, but Simpleton again stopped
them and said, “Leave the creatures in peace, I will not allow you to
burn them.” At length the three brothers arrived at a castle where
stone horses were standing in the stables, and no human being was to be
seen, and they went through all the halls until, quite at the end, they
came to a door in which were three locks. In the middle of the door,
however, there was a little pane, through which they could see into the
room. There they saw a little grey man, who was sitting at a table. They called him, once, twice, but he did not hear; at last they called
him for the third time, when he got up, opened the locks, and came out. He said nothing, however, but conducted them to a handsomely-spread
table, and when they had eaten and drunk, he took each of them to a
bedroom. Next morning the little grey man came to the eldest, beckoned
to him, and conducted him to a stone table, on which were inscribed
three tasks, by the performance of which the castle could be delivered. The first was that in the forest, beneath the moss, lay the princess’s
pearls, a thousand in number, which must be picked up, and if by sunset
one single pearl was wanting, he who had looked for them would be
turned into stone. The eldest went thither, and sought the whole day,
but when it came to an end, he had only found one hundred, and what was
written on the table came to pass, and he was changed into stone. Next
day, the second brother undertook the adventure; it did not, however,
fare much better with him than with the eldest; he did not find more
than two hundred pearls, and was changed to stone. At last the turn
came to Simpleton also, who sought in the moss. It was, however, so
hard to find the pearls, and he got on so slowly, that he seated
himself on a stone, and wept. And while he was thus sitting, the King
of the ants whose life he had once saved, came with five thousand ants,
and before long the little creatures had got all the pearls together,
and laid them in a heap. The second task, however, was to fetch out of
the lake the key of the King’s daughter’s bed-chamber. When Simpleton
came to the lake, the ducks which he had saved, swam up to him, dived
down, and brought the key out of the water. But the third task was the
most difficult; from amongst the three sleeping daughters of the King
was the youngest and dearest to be sought out. They, however, resembled
each other exactly, and were only to be distinguished by their having
eaten different sweetmeats before they fell asleep; the eldest a bit of
sugar; the second a little syrup; and the youngest a spoonful of honey. Then the Queen of the bees, which Simpleton had protected from the
fire, came and tasted the lips of all three, and at last she remained
sitting on the mouth which had eaten honey, and thus the King’s son
recognized the right princess. Then the enchantment was at an end;
everything was released from sleep, and those who had been turned to
stone received once more their natural forms. Simpleton married the
youngest and sweetest princess, and after her father’s death became
King, and his two brothers received the two other sisters. 63 The Three Feathers

There was once on a time a King who had three sons, of whom two were
clever and wise, but the third did not speak much, and was simple, and
was called the Simpleton. When the King had become old and weak, and
was thinking of his end, he did not know which of his sons should
inherit the kingdom after him. Then he said to them, “Go forth, and he
who brings me the most beautiful carpet shall be King after my death.”
And that there should be no dispute amongst them, he took them outside
his castle, blew three feathers in the air, and said, “You shall go as
they fly.” One feather flew to the east, the other to the west, but the
third flew straight up and did not fly far, but soon fell to the
ground. And now one brother went to the right, and the other to the
left, and they mocked Simpleton, who was forced to stay where the third
feather had fallen. He sat down and was sad, then all at once he saw
that there was a trap-door close by the feather. He raised it up, found
some steps, and went down them, and then he came to another door,
knocked at it, and heard somebody inside calling,

“Little green maiden small,
Hopping hither and thither;
Hop to the door,
And quickly see who is there.”


The door opened, and he saw a great, fat toad sitting, and round about
her a crowd of little toads. The fat toad asked what he wanted?