Sandmans Rainy Day Stories | Page 6

out, "My power is gone!" as he tried to crawl away.
"Tell me how to get a pear from the tree and I will spare your life," said the peasant.
The troll managed to get upon his feet, but he was no longer the powerful creature he had been a few moments before.
"Follow me," he said, as he led the peasant out of the door of the tree, which was still open.
The tree was filled with swords, all shiny and sharp-looking, as the sun fell upon them, for as soon as the peasant had slid in the door the swords had appeared and had warned the troll before he entered that some mortal was near by.
"If you will promise to do as I ask you after you have the pear, I will tell you the secret of getting it," said the troll. "It will not harm any one to grant my last wish."
So the youth promised and the troll said: "You must strike the swords on the tree with the sword you hold until the sparks fly. Then the pears which you see hanging from the swords will fall to the ground, but the tree will burn up.
"And then there will be nothing for me. My magic power will be gone forever. So I ask that you will then strike me with the sword on my middle head, and that will change me into a shape which will never harm any one again."
This the youth said he would do and began to strike the swords on the tree, making the sparks fly and the pears drop, and then all at once the tree began to burn.
Keeping the sword still in his grasp, the youth looked for the largest of the green pears and picked it up, putting it in his pocket.
"Don't forget your promise," said the troll as the youth started to go away. "You need not be afraid," he said as the youth drew back. "The blow will not hurt me."
So the youth lifted the sword and brought it down on the troll's middle dead with such force that the sword fell from his hands and struck the mountain of ice with such a bang that the ice began to crack.
At first the youth did not see what had happened, the noise had startled him so, but the next minute he saw that in place of the troll stood a beautiful tree filled with pears, and the mountain was no longer ice, but covered with soft, green moss.
He did not stop, but down the mountain he ran and to his home, where the brindle cow stood in the barn, so hungry she opened her mouth at once and ate the pear, thinking it would be sweet and juicy, but it was far from that. It was so bitter and bad that had she not been so hungry she could not have eaten it, but it was swallowed before she knew it, and there in the stall of the peasant's barn stood the pretty Princess looking about her in astonishment.
"How did I come in this horrid place, and what a dirty-looking man you are!" she said. "Take me home at once! My father is the King, and he will punish you if you do not obey me!"
It did not take the peasant long to take her home, and when the Queen and the King saw their daughter in her own form again they fell on their knees before the peasant youth and thanked him.
But the Princess did not understand what it all meant, and said: "Why do you kneel to him? He should kneel to you! Are you not King and Queen of this land, and this man a poor peasant?"
Before the King could explain to the Princess the youth said: "I have brought you your daughter, but you must keep her. I could never marry a maid who thought herself above me. Give me gold and let me go back to my home!"
He was wise enough to see that a poor peasant and a princess could not be happy together and a peasant girl was a more fitting bride for him.
The Princess was very sorry for all she had said when she found out the peasant had saved her, and when he was married she sent to his wife a chest of linen and silver which made her the envy of all the other peasants for miles around.
The troll was never heard of again, and only the peasant youth knows that the pear-tree on the side of the mountain which bears such juicy fruit was once the three-headed troll who lived under the tree of swords.

THE SILVER HORSESHOES
Once upon a time there lived a king who wanted a son-in-law who would be a good soldier as well as a good husband,