Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 03 (43 page)

The news of his son's adventures had already reached his father's
Court, and everyone was more than astonished at the success of the
once despised Prince. His elder brothers, who had in vain gone in
pursuit of the thief of the golden apples, were furious over their
younger brother's good fortune, and plotted and planned how they
were to kill him. They hid themselves in the wood through which
the Prince had to pass on his way to the palace, and there fell on
him, and, having beaten him to death, they carried off the golden
horse and the golden bird. But nothing they could do would
persuade the golden mermaid to go with them or move from the spot,
for ever since she had left the sea, she had so attached herself
to her Prince that she asked nothing else than to live or die with
him.

For many weeks the poor mermaid sat and watched over the dead body
of her lover, weeping salt tears over his loss, when suddenly one
day their old friend the wolf appeared and said, 'Cover the
Prince's body with all the leaves and flowers you can find in the
wood.' The maiden did as he told her, and then the wolf breathed
over the flowery grave, and, lo and behold! the Prince lay there
sleeping as peacefully as a child. 'Now you may wake him if you
like,' said the wolf, and the mermaid bent over him and gently
kissed the wounds his brothers had made on his forehead, and the
Prince awoke, and you may imagine how delighted he was to find his
beautiful mermaid beside him, though he felt a little depressed
when he thought of the loss of the golden bird and the golden
horse. After a time the wolf, who had likewise fallen on the
Prince's neck, advised them to continue their journey, and once
more the Prince and his lovely bride mounted on the faithful
beast's back.

The King's joy was great when he embraced his youngest son, for he
had long since despaired of his return. He received the wolf and
the beautiful golden mermaid most cordially too, and the Prince
was made to tell his adventures all over from the beginning. The
poor old father grew very sad when he heard of the shameful
conduct of his elder sons, and had them called before him. They
turned as white as death when they saw their brother, whom they
thought they had murdered, standing beside them alive and well,
and so startled were they that when the King asked them why they
had behaved so wickedly to their brother they could think of no
lie, but confessed at once that they had slain the young Prince in
order to obtain possession of the golden horse and the golden
bird. Their father's wrath knew no bounds, and he ordered them
both to be banished, but he could not do enough to honour his
youngest son, and his marriage with the beautiful mermaid was
celebrated with much pomp and magnificence. When the festivities
were over, the wolf bade them all farewell, and returned once more
to his life in the woods, much to the regret of the old King and
the young Prince and his bride.

And so ended the adventures of the Prince with his friend the
wolf.

Grimm.

There was once upon a time a man and his wife who had an old cat
and an old dog. One day the man, whose name was Simon, said to his
wife, whose name was Susan, 'Why should we keep our old cat any
longer? She never catches any mice now-a-days, and is so useless
that I have made up my mind to drown her.'

But his wife replied, 'Don't do that, for I'm sure she could still
catch mice.'

'Rubbish,' said Simon. 'The mice might dance on her and she would
never catch one. I've quite made up my mind that the next time I
see her, I shall put her in the water.'

Susan was very unhappy when she heard this, and so was the cat,
who had been listening to the conversation behind the stove. When
Simon went off to his work, the poor cat miawed so pitifully, and
looked up so pathetically into Susan's face, that the woman
quickly opened the door and said, 'Fly for your life, my poor
little beast, and get well away from here before your master
returns.'

The cat took her advice, and ran as quickly as her poor old legs
would carry her into the wood, and when Simon came home, his wife
told him that the cat had vanished.

'So much the better for her,' said Simon. 'And now we have got rid
of her, we must consider what we are to do with the old dog. He is
quite deaf and blind, and invariably barks when there is no need,
and makes no sound when there is. I think the best thing I can do
with him is to hang him.'

But soft-hearted Susan replied, 'Please don't do so; he's surely
not so useless as all that.'

'Don't be foolish,' said her husband. 'The courtyard might be full
of thieves and he'd never discover it. No, the first time I see
him, it's all up with him, I can tell you.'

Susan was very unhappy at his words, and so was the dog, who was
lying in the corner of the room and had heard everything. As soon
as Simon had gone to his work, he stood up and howled so
touchingly that Susan quickly opened the door, and said 'Fly for
your life, poor beast, before your master gets home.' And the dog
ran into the wood with his tail between his legs.

When her husband returned, his wife told him that the dog had
disappeared.

'That's lucky for him,' said Simon, but Susan sighed, for she had
been very fond of the poor creature.

Now it happened that the cat and dog met each other on their
travels, and though they had not been the best of friends at home,
they were quite glad to meet among strangers. They sat down under
a holly tree and both poured forth their woes.

Presently a fox passed by, and seeing the pair sitting together in
a disconsolate fashion, he asked them why they sat there, and what
they were grumbling about.

The cat replied, 'I have caught many a mouse in my day, but now
that I am old and past work, my master wants to drown me.'

And the dog said, 'Many a night have I watched and guarded my
master's house, and now that I am old and deaf, he wants to hang
me.'

The fox answered, 'That's the way of the world. But I'll help you
to get back into your master's favour, only you must first help me
in my own troubles.'

They promised to do their best, and the fox continued, 'The wolf
has declared war against me, and is at this moment marching to
meet me in company with the bear and the wild boar, and to-morrow
there will be a fierce battle between us.'

'All right,' said the dog and the cat, 'we will stand by you, and
if we are killed, it is at any rate better to die on the field of
battle than to perish ignobly at home,' and they shook paws and
concluded the bargain. The fox sent word to the wolf to meet him
at a certain place, and the three set forth to encounter him and
his friends.

The wolf, the bear, and the wild boar arrived on the spot first,
and when they had waited some time for the fox, the dog, and the
cat, the bear said, 'I'll climb up into the oak tree, and look if
I can see them coming.'

The first time he looked round he said, 'I can see nothing,' and
the second time he looked round he said, 'I can still see
nothing.' But the third time he said, 'I see a mighty army in the
distance, and one of the warriors has the biggest lance you ever
saw!'

This was the cat, who was marching along with her tail erect.

And so they laughed and jeered, and it was so hot that the bear
said, 'The enemy won't be here at this rate for many hours to
come, so I'll just curl myself up in the fork of the tree and have
a little sleep.'

And the wolf lay down under the oak, and the wild boar buried
himself in some straw, so that nothing was seen of him but one
ear.

And while they were lying there, the fox, the cat and the dog
arrived. When the cat saw the wild boar's ear, she pounced upon
it, thinking it was a mouse in the straw.

The wild boar got up in a dreadful fright, gave one loud grunt and
disappeared into the wood. But the cat was even more startled than
the boar, and, spitting with terror, she scrambled up into the
fork of the tree, and as it happened right into the bear's face.
Now it was the bear's turn to be alarmed, and with a mighty growl
he jumped down from the oak and fell right on the top of the wolf
and killed him as dead as a stone.

On their way home from the war the fox caught score of mice, and
when they reached Simon's cottage he put them all on the stove and
said to the cat, 'Now go and fetch one mouse after the other, and
lay them down before your master.'

'All right,' said the cat, and did exactly as the fox told her.

When Susan saw this she said to her husband, 'Just look, here is
our old cat back again, and see what a lot of mice she has
caught.'

'Wonders will never cease,' cried Simon. 'I certainly never
thought the old cat would ever catch another mouse.'

But Susan answered, 'There, you see, I always said our cat was a
most excellent creature—but you men always think you know best.'

In the meantime the fox said to the dog, 'Our friend Simon has
just killed a pig; when it gets a little darker, you must go into
the courtyard and bark with all your might.'

'All right,' said the dog, and as soon as it grew dusk he began to
bark loudly.

Susan, who heard him first, said to her husband, 'Our dog must
have come back, for I hear him barking lustily. Do go out and see
what's the matter; perhaps thieves may be stealing our sausages.'

But Simon answered, 'The foolish brute is as deaf as a post and is
always barking at nothing,' and he refused to get up.

The next morning Susan got up early to go to church at the
neighbouring town, and she thought she would take some sausages to
her aunt who lived there. But when she went to her larder, she
found all the sausages gone, and a great hole in the floor. She
called out to her husband, 'I was perfectly right. Thieves have
been here last night, and they have not left a single sausage. Oh!
if you had only got up when I asked you to!'

Then Simon scratched his head and said, 'I can't understand it at
all. I certainly never believed the old dog was so quick at
hearing.'

But Susan replied, 'I always told you our old dog was the best dog
in the world—but as usual you thought you knew so much better.
Men are the same all the world over.'

And the fox scored a point too, for he had carried away the
sausages himself!

Grimm.

There was once a fisherman and his wife who lived together in a
little hut close to the sea, and the fisherman used to go down
every day to fish; and he would fish and fish. So he used to sit
with his rod and gaze into the shining water; and he would gaze
and gaze.

Now, once the line was pulled deep under the water, and when he
hauled it up he hauled a large flounder with it. The flounder said
to him, 'Listen, fisherman. I pray you to let me go; I am not a
real flounder, I am an enchanted Prince. What good will it do you
if you kill me—I shall not taste nice? Put me back into the water
and let me swim away.'

'Well,' said the man, 'you need not make so much noise about it; I
am sure I had much better let a flounder that can talk swim away.'
With these words he put him back again into the shining water, and
the flounder sank to the bottom, leaving a long streak of blood
behind. Then the fisherman got up, and went home to his wife in
the hut.

'Husband,' said his wife, 'have you caught nothing to-day?'

'No,' said the man. 'I caught a flounder who said he was an
enchanted prince, so I let him swim away again.'

'Did you wish nothing from him?' said his wife.

'No,' said the man; 'what should I have wished from him?'

'Ah!' said the woman, 'it's dreadful to have to live all one's
life in this hut that is so small and dirty; you ought to have
wished for a cottage. Go now and call him; say to him that we
choose to have a cottage, and he will certainly give it you.'

'Alas!' said the man, 'why should I go down there again?'

'Why,' said his wife, 'you caught him, and then let him go again,
so he is sure to give you what you ask. Go down quickly.'

The man did not like going at all, but as his wife was not to be
persuaded, he went down to the sea.

When he came there the sea was quite green and yellow, and was no
longer shining. So he stood on the shore and said:

'Once a prince, but changed you be
Into a flounder in the sea.
Come! for my wife, Ilsebel,
Wishes what I dare not tell.'

Then the flounder came swimming up and said, 'Well, what does she
want?'

'Alas!' said the man, 'my wife says I ought to have kept you and
wished something from you. She does not want to live any longer in
the hut; she would like a cottage.'

'Go home, then,' said the flounder; 'she has it.'

So the man went home, and there was his wife no longer in the hut,
but in its place was a beautiful cottage, and his wife was sitting
in front of the door on a bench. She took him by the hand and said
to him, 'Come inside, and see if this is not much better.' They
went in, and inside the cottage was a tiny hall, and a beautiful
sitting-room, and a bedroom in which stood a bed, a kitchen and a
dining-room all furnished with the best of everything, and fitted
up with every kind of tin and copper utensil. And outside was a
little yard in which were chickens and ducks, and also a little
garden with vegetables and fruit trees.

'See,' said the wife, 'isn't this nice?'

'Yes,' answered her husband; 'here we shall remain and live very
happily.'

'We will think about that,' said his wife.

With these words they had their supper and went to bed. All went
well for a week or a fortnight, then the wife said:

'Listen, husband; the cottage is much too small, and so is the
yard and the garden; the flounder might just as well have sent us
a larger house. I should like to live in a great stone castle. Go
down to the flounder, and tell him to send us a castle.'