Grimms Fairy Tales | Page 6

awoke and the hill was gone; so he
went merrily to the king, and told him that now that it was removed he must give him the
princess.
Then the king was obliged to keep his word, and away went the young man and the
princess; and the fox came and said to him, 'We will have all three, the princess, the horse,
and the bird.' 'Ah!' said the young man, 'that would be a great thing, but how can you
contrive it?'

'If you will only listen,' said the fox, 'it can be done. When you come to the king, and he
asks for the beautiful princess, you must say, "Here she is!" Then he will be very joyful;
and you will mount the golden horse that they are to give you, and put out your hand to
take leave of them; but shake hands with the princess last. Then lift her quickly on to the
horse behind you; clap your spurs to his side, and gallop away as fast as you can.'
All went right: then the fox said, 'When you come to the castle where the bird is, I will
stay with the princess at the door, and you will ride in and speak to the king; and when he
sees that it is the right horse, he will bring out the bird; but you must sit still, and say that
you want to look at it, to see whether it is the true golden bird; and when you get it into
your hand, ride away.'
This, too, happened as the fox said; they carried off the bird, the princess mounted again,
and they rode on to a great wood. Then the fox came, and said, 'Pray kill me, and cut off
my head and my feet.' But the young man refused to do it: so the fox said, 'I will at any
rate give you good counsel: beware of two things; ransom no one from the gallows, and
sit down by the side of no river.' Then away he went. 'Well,' thought the young man, 'it is
no hard matter to keep that advice.'
He rode on with the princess, till at last he came to the village where he had left his two
brothers. And there he heard a great noise and uproar; and when he asked what was the
matter, the people said, 'Two men are going to be hanged.' As he came nearer, he saw that
the two men were his brothers, who had turned robbers; so he said, 'Cannot they in any
way be saved?' But the people said 'No,' unless he would bestow all his money upon the
rascals and buy their liberty. Then he did not stay to think about the matter, but paid what
was asked, and his brothers were given up, and went on with him towards their home.
And as they came to the wood where the fox first met them, it was so cool and pleasant
that the two brothers said, 'Let us sit down by the side of the river, and rest a while, to eat
and drink.' So he said, 'Yes,' and forgot the fox's counsel, and sat down on the side of the
river; and while he suspected nothing, they came behind, and threw him down the bank,
and took the princess, the horse, and the bird, and went home to the king their master, and
said. 'All this have we won by our labour.' Then there was great rejoicing made; but the
horse would not eat, the bird would not sing, and the princess wept.
The youngest son fell to the bottom of the river's bed: luckily it was nearly dry, but his
bones were almost broken, and the bank was so steep that he could find no way to get out.
Then the old fox came once more, and scolded him for not following his advice;
otherwise no evil would have befallen him: 'Yet,' said he, 'I cannot leave you here, so lay
hold of my tail and hold fast.' Then he pulled him out of the river, and said to him, as he
got upon the bank, 'Your brothers have set watch to kill you, if they find you in the
kingdom.' So he dressed himself as a poor man, and came secretly to the king's court, and
was scarcely within the doors when the horse began to eat, and the bird to sing, and
princess left off weeping. Then he went to the king, and told him all his brothers' roguery;
and they were seized and punished, and he had the princess given to him again; and after
the king's death he was heir to his kingdom.

A long while after, he went to walk one day in the wood, and