The Crimson Fairy Book | Page 9

you do well, for he deserves everything. Go back, and when you get home your wife
will just have had a little boy. Take three drops of blood from the child's little finger, rub
them on your servant's wrists with a blade of grass and he will return to life.'
'I have another thing to ask,' said the prince, when he had thanked him. 'In the forest near
here is a fine stream but not a fish or other living creature in it. Why is this?'
'Because no one has ever been drowned in the stream. But take care, in crossing, to get as
near the other side as you can before you say so, or you may be the first victim yourself.'
'Another question, please, before I go. On my way here I lodged one night in the house of
three maidens. All were well-mannered, hard-working, and pretty, and yet none has had a

wooer. Why was this?'
'Because they always throw out their sweepings in the face of the sun.'
'And why is it that a miller, who has a large mill with all the best machinery and gets
plenty of corn to grind is so poor that he can hardly live from day to day?'
'Because the miller keeps everything for himself, and does not give to those who need it.'
The prince wrote down the answers to his questions, took a friendly leave of Lucky Luck,
and set off for home.
When he reached the stream it asked if he brought it any good news. 'When I get across I
will tell you,' said he. So the stream parted; he walked through and on to the highest part
of the bank. He stopped and shouted out:
'Listen, oh stream! Lucky Luck says you will never have any living creature in your
waters until someone is drowned in you.'
The words were hardly out of his mouth when the stream swelled and overflowed till it
reached the rock up which he had climbed, and dashed so far up it that the spray flew
over him. But he clung on tight, and after failing to reach him three times the stream
returned to its proper course. Then the prince climbed down, dried himself in the sun, and
set out on his march home.
He spent the night once more at the mill and gave the miller his answer, and by-and-by he
told the three sisters not to throw out all their sweepings in the face of the sun.
The prince had hardly arrived at home when some thieves tried to ford the stream with a
fine horse they had stolen. When they were half-way across, the stream rose so suddenly
that it swept them all away. From that time it became the best fishing stream in the
country-side.
The miller, too, began to give alms and became a very good man, and in time grew so
rich that he hardly knew how much he had.
And the three sisters, now that they no longer insulted the sun, had each a wooer within a
week.
When the prince got home he found that his wife had just got a fine little boy. He did not
lose a moment in pricking the baby's finger till the blood ran, and he brushed it on the
wrists of the stone figure, which shuddered all over and split with a loud noise in seven
parts and there was the faithful servant alive and well.
When the old king saw this he foamed with rage, stared wildly about, flung himself on
the ground and died.
The servant stayed on with his royal master and served him faithfully all the rest of his

life; and, if neither of them is dead, he is serving him still.
[From Ungarische Mahrchen.]

The Hairy Man
Somewhere or other, but I don't know where, there lived a king who owned two
remarkably fine fields of rape, but every night two of the rape heaps were burnt down in
one of the fields. The king was extremely angry at this, and sent out soldiers to catch
whoever had set fire to the ricks; but it was all of no use--not a soul could they see. Then
he offered nine hundred crowns to anyone who caught the evil-doer, and at the same time
ordered that whoever did not keep proper watch over the fields should be killed; but
though there were a great many people, none seemed able to protect the fields.
The king had already put ninety-nine people to death, when a little swineherd came to
him who had two dogs; one was called 'Psst,' and the other 'Hush'; and the boy told the
king that he would watch over the ricks.
When it grew dark he climbed up on the