“Late at night, when
the King’s daughter is in bed, bring her here in her sleep, she shall
do servant’s work for me.” The mannikin said, “That is an easy thing
for me to do, but a very dangerous thing for you, for if it is
discovered, you will fare ill.” When twelve o’clock had struck, the
door sprang open, and the mannikin carried in the princess. “Aha! art
thou there?” cried the soldier, “get to thy work at once! Fetch the
broom and sweep the chamber.” When she had done this, he ordered her to
come to his chair, and then he stretched out his feet and said, “Pull
off my boots for me,” and then he threw them in her face, and made her
pick them up again, and clean and brighten them. She, however, did
everything he bade her, without opposition, silently and with half-shut
eyes. When the first cock crowed, the mannikin carried her back to the
royal palace, and laid her in her bed. Next morning when the princess arose, she went to her father, and told
him that she had had a very strange dream. “I was carried through the
streets with the rapidity of lightning,” said she, “and taken into a
soldier’s room, and I had to wait upon him like a servant, sweep his
room, clean his boots, and do all kinds of menial work. It was only a
dream, and yet I am just as tired as if I really had done everything.”
“The dream may have been true,” said the King, “I will give thee a
piece of advice. Fill thy pocket full of peas, and make a small hole in
it, and then if thou art carried away again, they will fall out and
leave a track in the streets.” But unseen by the King, the mannikin was
standing beside him when he said that, and heard all. At night when the
sleeping princess was again carried through the streets, some peas
certainly did fall out of her pocket, but they made no track, for the
crafty mannikin had just before scattered peas in every street there
was. And again the princess was compelled to do servant’s work until
cock-crow. Next morning the King sent his people out to seek the track, but it was
all in vain, for in every street poor children were sitting, picking up
peas, and saying, “It must have rained peas, last night.” “We must
think of something else,” said the King; “keep thy shoes on when thou
goest to bed, and before thou comest back from the place where thou art
taken, hide one of them there, I will soon contrive to find it.” The
black mannikin heard this plot, and at night when the soldier again
ordered him to bring the princess, revealed it to him, and told him
that he knew of no expedient to counteract this stratagem, and that if
the shoe were found in the soldier’s house it would go badly with him. “Do what I bid thee,” replied the soldier, and again this third night
the princess was obliged to work like a servant, but before she went
away, she hid her shoe under the bed. Next morning the King had the entire town searched for his daughter’s
shoe. It was found at the soldier’s, and the soldier himself, who at
the entreaty of the dwarf had gone outside the gate, was soon brought
back, and thrown into prison. In his flight he had forgotten the most
valuable things he had, the blue light and the gold, and had only one
ducat in his pocket. And now loaded with chains, he was standing at the
window of his dungeon, when he chanced to see one of his comrades
passing by. The soldier tapped at the pane of glass, and when this man
came up, said to him, “Be so kind as to fetch me the small bundle I
have left lying in the inn, and I will give you a ducat for doing it.”
His comrade ran thither and brought him what he wanted. As soon as the
soldier was alone again, he lighted his pipe and summoned the black
mannikin. “Have no fear,” said the latter to his master. “Go
wheresoever they take you, and let them do what they will, only take
the blue light with you.” Next day the soldier was tried, and though he
had done nothing wicked, the judge condemned him to death. When he was
led forth to die, he begged a last favor of the King. “What is it?”
asked the King. “That I may smoke one more pipe on my way.” “Thou mayst
smoke three,” answered the King, “but do not imagine that I will spare
thy life.” Then the soldier pulled out his pipe and lighted it at the
blue light, and as soon as a few wreaths of smoke had ascended, the
mannikin was there with a small cudgel in his hand, and said, “What
does my lord command?” “Strike down to earth that false judge there,
and his constable, and spare not the King who has treated me so ill.”
Then the mannikin fell on them like lightning, darting this way and
that way, and whosoever was so much as touched by his cudgel fell to
earth, and did not venture to stir again. The King was terrified; he
threw himself on the soldier’s mercy, and merely to be allowed to live
at all, gave him his kingdom for his own, and the princess to wife. 117 The Wilful Child

Once upon a time there was a child who was willful, and would not do at
her mother wished. For this reason God had no pleasure in her, and let
her become ill, and no doctor could do her any good, and in a short
time she lay on her death-bed. When she had been lowered into her
grave, and the earth was spread over her, all at once her arm came out
again, and stretched upwards, and when they had put it in and spread
fresh earth over it, it was all to no purpose, for the arm always came
out again. Then the mother herself was obliged to go to the grave, and
strike the arm with a rod, and when she had done that, it was drawn in,
and then at last the child had rest beneath the ground. 118 The Three Army-Surgeons

Three army-surgeons who thought they knew their art perfectly, were
travelling about the world, and they came to an inn where they wanted
to pass the night. The host asked whence they came, and whither they
were going? “We are roaming about the world and practising our art.”
“Just show me for once in a way what you can do,” said the host. Then
the first said he would cut off his hand, and put it on again early
next morning; the second said he would tear out his heart, and replace
it next morning; the third said he would cut out his eyes and heal them
again next morning. “If you can do that,” said the innkeeper, “you have
learnt everything.” They, however, had a salve, with which they rubbed
themselves, which joined parts together, and they carried the little
bottle in which it was, constantly with them. Then they cut the hand,
heart and eyes from their bodies as they had said they would, and laid
them all together on a plate, and gave it to the innkeeper. The
innkeeper gave it to a servant who was to set it in the cupboard, and
take good care of it. The girl, however, had a lover in secret, who was
a soldier. When therefore the innkeeper, the three army-surgeons, and
everyone else in the house were asleep, the soldier came and wanted
something to eat.