Tales of Wonder Every Child Should Know | Page 3

we tire of what is trivial and paltry in the machine-made fairy tale of to-day, let us open one of these crimson volumes and hear again the note of the little brown bird in the thicket.
KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN.
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Tales of Wonder
I Wonder
Once on a time there was a man who had three sons--Peter, Paul, and the least of all, whom they called Youngling. I can't say the man had anything more than these three sons, for he hadn't one penny to rub against another; and he told the lads, over and over again, that they must go out into the world and try to earn their bread, for at home there was nothing to be looked for but starving to death.
Now near by the man's cottage was the King's palace, and, you must know, just against the windows a great oak had sprung up, which was so stout and tall that it took away all the light. The King had said he would give untold treasure to the man who could fell the oak, but no one was man enough for that, for as soon as one chip of the oak's trunk flew off, two grew in its stead.
A well, too, the King desired, which was to hold water for the whole year; for all his neighbours had wells, but he hadn't any, and that he thought a shame. So the King said he would give both money and goods to anyone who could dig him such a well as would hold water for a whole year round, but no one could do it, for the palace lay high, high up on a hill, and they could only dig a few inches before they came upon the living rock.
But, as the King had set his heart on having these two things done, he had it given out far and wide, in all the churches of his dominion, that he who could fell the big oak in the King's courtyard, and get him a well that would hold water the whole year round, should have the Princess and half the kingdom.
Well! you may easily know there was many a man who came to try his luck; but all their hacking and hewing, all their digging and delving, were of no avail. The oak grew taller and stouter at every stroke, and the rock grew no softer.
So one day the three brothers thought they'd set off and try, too, and their father hadn't a word against it; for, even if they didn't get the Princess and half the kingdom, it might happen that they would get a place somewhere with a good master, and that was all he wanted. So when the brothers said they thought of going to the palace, their father said "Yes" at once, and Peter, Paul, and Youngling went off from their home.
They had not gone far before they came to a fir-wood, and up along one side of it rose a steep hillside, and as they went they heard something hewing and hacking away up on the hill among the trees.
"I wonder now what it is that is hewing away up yonder?" said Youngling.
"You are always so clever with your wonderings," said Peter and Paul, both at once. "What wonder is it, pray, that a wood-cutter should stand and hack up on a hillside?"
"Still, I'd like to see what it is, after all," said Youngling, and up he went.
"Oh, if you're such a child, 't will do you good to go and take a lesson," cried out his brothers after him.
But Youngling didn't care for what they said; he climbed the steep hillside toward where the noise came, and when he reached the place, what do you think he saw?
Why, an axe that stood there hacking and hewing, all of itself, at the trunk of a fir.
"Good day," said Youngling. "So you stand here all alone and hew, do you?"
"Yes, here I've stood and hewed and hacked a long, long time, waiting for you, my lad," said the Axe.
"Well, here I am at last," said Youngling, as he took the Axe, pulled it off its haft, and stuffed both head and haft into his wallet.
So when he climbed down again to his brothers, they began to jeer and laugh at him.
"And now, what funny thing was it you saw up yonder on the hillside?" they said.
"Oh, it was only an axe we heard," said Youngling.
When they had gone a bit farther, they came under a steep spur of rock, and up above they heard something digging and shovelling.
"I wonder, now," said Youngling, "what it is digging and shovelling up yonder at the top of the rock?"
"Ah, you're always so clever with your wonderings," said Peter and Paul again; "as if you'd never heard a