Part 25

"I am a very easy master," said the Giant, "and that is all I expect you to do. But remember, I expect the work to be well done." Then, before he reached the door, he turned back and said, in a threatening way: "You are not to open a single one of the doors in your room. If you do, I shall kill you."

Then the Giant shut the door in a way that seemed to say, "I mean every word I have said," and he went off with his goats, and left the Prince alone.

When he was gone, the Prince drummed for a while with his fingers on the window. Then, when the Giant and his flock had gone out of sight, he began to walk about the room, whistling to himself and looking at the forbidden doors.

The house seemed silent and lonely, and he really had nothing to do. To clean a stable with only one stall seemed a very small task for a sturdy boy like him.

At last he said to himself: "I wonder what the Giant keeps behind those doors? I think I shall look and see."

If the Giant had been there the Prince would have paid dear for his curiosity; but he was far away, and the Prince boldly opened the first door, and inside he saw a huge pot, or cauldron, boiling away merrily.

"What a strange thing," said the Prince; "there is no fire under the pot. I must go in and see it!"

And into the room he went, and bent down to see what queer soup it was that boiled without a fire. As he did so, a lock of his hair dipped into the pot; and when he raised his head, the lock looked like bronze. The cauldron was full of boiling copper.

He went out and closed the door carefully behind him; and, wondering if there was a copper pot in the next room, he opened the second door. There was a cauldron inside, boiling merrily; but there was no fire to be seen. He went over and looked into the pot; and as it did not look exactly like the first one, he dipped in another lock. When he raised his head, up came the lock, weighted heavily with silver. The cauldron was full of boiling silver.

Wondering greatly at the Giant's riches, the Prince went out, closed the door very carefully, and opened the third door. He almost tip-toed into this room, he was so curious; but he went through the same performance. And when he raised his head from the third pot that boiled without a fire, the third lock of hair was like a heavy tassel of gold. The third pot was full of boiling gold.

Full of amazement at the Giant's great riches, the Prince hurried out of the room, and closed the door with the greatest care. By this time he was so full of curiosity that he ran as fast as he could to the fourth door. And yet he scarcely dared to open it to see the riches he was sure it hid behind it.

However, he opened it, very gently and very quietly; and there on the bench, in the window, looking out, sat a beautiful maiden.

Although the door opened very quietly, she heard the sound, and looked up. And when she saw the handsome young Prince standing in the doorway, she started toward him, and cried in great distress: "O boy, boy! why have you come here?"

The Prince told her he had come to serve the Giant, and found him a very easy master. Indeed, he said the Giant had given him nothing to do that day but clean the stable.

The maiden told him that if he tried to clean it as everyone else did, he would never finish the work, because for every pitchforkful he threw out, ten would come back.

The thing to do, she said, was to use the handle of his pitchfork, and the work would soon be done.

The Prince said he would follow her advice; and then they sat all day and talked of pleasant things. Indeed, they liked each other so well that they very soon settled that they would get married.

When it came toward evening, the maiden reminded the Prince that the Giant would soon be home. So the youth went out to clean the stable. First, he tried to do the work as any other boy would do it; but when he found that in a very short time he would not have room to stand, he quickly turned the pitchfork around and used the handle. In a few moments the stable was as clean as a stable could be. Then he went back to his room and wandered about it with his hands in his pockets, looking quite as innocent as if he had not raised the latch of a single door.

Soon the Giant came in and asked if his work was done. The Prince said it was. Of course, the Giant did not believe him; but he went out to see. When he came back he said very decidedly to the Prince: "You have been talking to my Master-Maid. You could not have learned how to clean that stable yourself."

But the Prince made himself appear as if he had never heard of the maiden before, and asked such stupid questions that the Giant went away satisfied, and left him to sleep.

Next morning, before the Giant set out with his goats, he again told the Prince that he would find he was an easy master: all he had to do that day was to catch the Giant's horse that was feeding on the mountain-side. And having set him this task, the Giant said that if the Prince opened one of the doors he would kill him. Then he took his staff, and was soon out of sight.

Quick as the Giant disappeared, the Prince, who had no more interest in the other rooms, opened the fourth door. The maiden asked him about his day's task; and when she heard it; she told the Prince that the horse would rush at him with flame bursting from its nostrils, and its mouth wide open to tear him. But, she said, if he would take the bridle that hung on the crook by the door, and fling it straight into the horse's mouth, the beast would become quite tame. He promised to do so; and they talked all day of pleasant things. And when it came toward evening the maiden reminded him that the Giant would soon be home.

So the Prince went out to catch the horse; and everything happened as the maiden said. But when the fiery horse rushed at him with open mouth he watched his opportunity, and just at the right moment he flung the bridle in between its teeth, and the horse stood still. Then the Prince mounted it and rode it quietly home. He put the horse in the stable, and went to his room, sat down and whistled to himself as if he did not know there was a maiden in the world.

Very soon the Giant came in, and asked about the horse, and the Prince said very quietly that it was in the stable. The Giant did not believe him; but he went to see, and again accused the Prince of having been talking to his Master-Maid.

The Prince pretended to be stupid, and asked silly questions, and said he would like to see the maid. "You shall see her soon enough," the Giant promised, and went away and left the Prince to go to sleep.

The next day, before the Giant set out, he told the Prince to go down underground and fetch his taxes. Then he warned the Prince not to touch the doors, and went off with his goats.

No sooner was he out of sight than the Prince rushed to the maiden, and asked her how he was to find his way underground to get the taxes, and how much he should ask for. She took him to the window and pointed out a rocky ledge. He must go there, she said, take a club that hung beside it, and knock on the rocky wall. As soon as he did so, a fiery monster would come out, and ask his errand.

"But remember," said the maiden, "when he asks how much you want, you are to say: 'As much as I can carry.'"

The Prince promised to do as she said, and they sat down close together and talked until the evening of what they would do when they escaped from the Giant and went home to get married.

When evening came the maiden reminded the Prince of the Giant's coming, and he went to get the money from the fiery monster. Everything happened as the maiden said; and when the monster, with sparks flying everywhere from him, asked fiercely, "How much do you want?" the Prince was not in the least afraid, but said: "As much as I can carry."

"It is a good thing you did not ask for a horse-load," said the monster; and he took the Prince in and filled a sack, which was as much as the Prince could do to carry. Indeed, that was nothing to what the Prince saw there, for gold and silver coins lay around, inside the mountain, like pebbles on the seashore.

The Prince carried the money back to the Giant's house; and when the Giant reached home, the Prince sat quietly in his room, whistling softly, just as if he had never risen from his seat since the Giant left.

The Giant demanded the money for his taxes. "Here it is," said the Prince, showing him the bursting sack. The Giant examined the money, and then again accused the Prince of having been talking to the Master-Maid.

"Master," said the Prince, "this is the third day you have talked about the Master-Maid. Will you let me see her?"

The Giant looked at the Prince from under his bushy eyebrows, and said: "It is time enough to-morrow. I will show her to you myself, and you will see quite enough of her," and he went off and left the Prince to his sleep.

But next morning, early, the Giant strode into the Prince's room, and saying, "Now I will take you to see the Master-Maid," he opened the door of the fourth room, beckoned the Prince to follow him in, and said to the maiden: "Kill this youth, boil him in the large cauldron, and when the broth is ready, call me."

Then, just as if he had said nothing more startling than "Prepare some cauliflower for dinner," he lay down on the bench and fell so fast asleep that his snores sounded like thunder.

Immediately the maiden began to make her preparations very neatly and quickly. First, with a little knife she made a small gash in the Prince's little finger and dropped three drops of his blood on the wooden stool, near the cauldron. Then she gathered up a lot of rubbish, such as old shoes and rags, and put them in the cauldron with water and pepper and salt. Last of all, she packed a small chest with gold, and gave it to the Prince to carry; filled a water-flask; took a golden cock and hen, and put a lump of salt and a golden apple in her pocket. Then the maid and the Prince ran to the sea-shore as fast as they could, climbed on board a little ship that had come from no-one-knows-where, and sailed away.

After a while the Giant roused a little, and said sleepily: "Will it soon boil?"

The first drop of blood answered quietly: "It is just beginning." And the Giant went to sleep again.

At the end of a few hours more he roused again and asked: "Will it soon be ready?"

And the second drop said: "Half done," in the maiden's mournful voice, for she had seen so many dark deeds done that, until the Prince came, she was always sad.

Again the Giant went to sleep, for several hours; but then he became quite awake, and asked: "Is it not done yet?"

The third drop said: "Quite ready." And the Giant sat up, and looked around. The maiden was nowhere to be seen, but the Giant went over to the pot and tasted the soup.

At once he knew what had happened, and in a furious rage rushed to the sea, but he could not get over it. So he called up his water-sucker, who lay down and drank two or three draughts; and the water fell so low that the horizon dropped, and the Giant could see the maiden and the Prince a long way off.

But the Master-Maid told the Prince to throw the lump of salt into the sea, and as soon as he did so it became such a high mountain that the Giant could not cross it, and the water-sucker could not gather up any more water.

Then the Giant called his hill-borer, who bored a tunnel through the mountain, so that the sucker could go through and drink up more water.

Then the maiden told the Prince to scatter a few drops from the water-bottle into the sea. As soon as he did so the sea filled up, and before the water-sucker could drink one drop, they were at the other side, safe in the kingdom of the Prince's father.

The Prince did not think it was fitting that his bride should walk to his palace, so he said he would go and fetch seven horses and a carriage to take her there. The maiden begged him not to go, because, she said, he would forget her; but he insisted. Then she asked him to speak to no one while he was away, and on no account to taste anything; and he promised that he would go straight to the stable for the horses, and without speaking a word to anyone, would come straight back.

When he got to the palace he found it full of a merry company, for his brother was going to be married to a lovely princess, who had come from a far-off land. But in answer to their cries of welcome and questions the Prince said no word, and only shook his head when they offered him food, until the pretty laughing young sister of the bride-to-be rolled a bright red apple across the courtyard to him. Laughing back at her, he picked it up, and without thinking bit into it. Immediately he forgot the Master-Maid, who had saved his life and was now sitting alone on the seashore waiting for him.

She waited until the night began to grow dark; then she went away into the wood near the palace to find shelter. There she found a dark hut, owned by a Witch, who at first would not allow her to stay. The Witch's hard heart, however, was softened by the maiden's gold, and she allowed her to have the hut.

Then the maid flung into the fire a handful of gold, which immediately melted and boiled all over the hut, and gilded the dark, dingy walls. The Witch was so frightened that she ran away, and the maid was left alone in the little gilded house.

The next morning the Sheriff was passing through the wood, and stopped to see the gilded house. At once he fell in love with the beautiful maiden, and asked her to marry him. The maiden asked if he had a great deal of money, and the Sheriff said he had a good deal, and went away to fetch it. In the evening he came back with a two-bushel bag of gold; and as he had so much, the maiden seemed to think she would marry him.

But as they were talking she sprang up, saying she had forgotten to put coal on the fire. The Sheriff went to do it for her, and immediately she put a spell on him so that until morning came, he could not let the shovel go, and had to stand all night pouring red hot coals over himself. In the morning he was a sad sight to see, and hurried home so fast, to hide himself, that people thought he was mad.

The next day the Attorney passed by, and the same thing happened. The Attorney brought a four-bushel sack of money to show the maid how rich he was; and while they were talking the maid said she had forgotten to close the door, so the Attorney went to close it. When he had his hand on the latch the maid cried: "May you hold the door, and the door you, and may you go between wall and wall, till day dawns."

And all night long the Attorney had to rush back and forth, trying to escape from the blows of the door which he could not let go. He made a great deal of noise, but the maid slept as soundly as if she were in the midst of calm. In the morning the Attorney escaped, and went home so bruised-and-battered looking that everyone stopped and stared at him.

The next day the Bailiff saw the bright little house and the maid. He at once fell in love with her, and brought at least six bushels of money to show how rich she would be, if she married him. The maid seemed to think she would; but while they were talking she suddenly remembered to tie up the calf.

The Bailiff went to do it for her, and she put a spell on him, so that all night long he had to fly over hill and dale holding on to the calf's tail, which he could by no means let go. In the morning he was a sorry sight, as he limped slowly home, with torn coat and ragged boots at which everyone looked, for he was always dressed very neatly.

While all this was happening, the Prince had quite forgotten the maid; and, indeed, it was arranged that he was to marry the young Princess who had thrown him the apple on the same day that his brother married her sister.

But when the two Princes and their brides were seated in the carriage the trace-pin broke, and no pin could be got that would not break, until the Sheriff thought of the maiden's shovel-handle. The King sent to borrow it, and it made a pin that did not break in two.

Then a curious thing happened: the bottom of the carriage fell out, and as fast as a new one was made it fell to pieces. However, the Attorney thought of the maiden's door. The King sent to borrow it, and it fitted the bottom of the carriage exactly.

Everything was now ready, and the coachman cracked his whip; but, strain as they would, the horses could not move the carriage. At last the Bailiff thought of the Master-Maid's calf; and although it was a very ridiculous thing to see the King's carriage drawn by a calf, the King sent to borrow it. The maiden, who was very obliging, lent it at once. The calf was harnessed to the carriage, and away it went over stock and stone, pulling horse and carriage as easily and quickly as it had pulled the Bailiff.

When they got to the church door the carriage began to go round and round so quickly that it was very difficult and dangerous to get out of it.

When they were seated at the wedding feast, the Prince said he thought they ought to invite the maiden who lived in the gilded hut, because without her help they could not have got to the church at all. The King thought so too; so they sent five courtiers to ask her to the feast.

"Greet the King," replied the maid, "and tell him if he is too good to come to me, I am too good to go to him."

So the King had to go himself and invite her; and as they went to the palace he thought she was something else than what she seemed to be.

So he put her in the place of honor beside the Prince; and after a while the Master-Maid took out the golden cock and hen and the golden apple, which she had brought from the Giant's house, and put them on the table.

At once the cock and hen began to fight.

"Oh! look how those two there are fighting for the apple," said the Prince.

"Yes, and so did we fight to get out of danger," said the Master-Maid.

Then the Prince knew her again. The Witch who had thrown him the apple disappeared, and now for the first time they began really to keep the wedding.

CAP O' RUSHES[J]

Well, there was once a very rich gentleman who had three daughters, and he thought he'd see how fond they were of him. So he says to the first:

"How much do you love me, my dear?"

"Why," says she, "as I love my life."

"That's good," says he.

So he says to the second: "How much do you love me, my dear?"

"Why," says she, "better nor all the world."

"That's good," says he.

So he says to the third: "How much do you love me, my dear?"

"Why, I love you as fresh meat loves salt," says she.

Well, but he was angry! "You don't love me at all," says he, "and in my house you stay no more." So he drove her out, there and then, and shut the door in her face.

Well, she went away, on and on, till she came to a fen, and there she gathered a lot of rushes and made them into a kind of a sort of a cloak, with a hood, to cover her from head to foot, and to hide her fine clothes.

And then she went on and on till she came to a great house.

"Do you want a maid?" says she.

"No, we don't," said they.

"I haven't nowhere to go," says she; "and I ask no wages, and will do any sort of work," says she.

"Well," said they, "if you like to wash the pots and scrape the saucepans you may stay," said they.

So she stayed there, and washed the pots, and scraped the saucepans, and did all the dirty work. And because she gave no name they called her "Cap o' Rushes."

Well, one day there was to be a great dance a little way off, and the servants were allowed to go and look on at the grand people. Cap o' Rushes said she was too tired to go, so she stayed at home.

But when they were gone, she offed with her cap o' rushes, and cleaned herself, and went to the dance. And no one there was so finely dressed as she!

Well, who should be there but her master's son, and what should he do but fall in love with her the minute he set eyes on her. He wouldn't dance with anyone else.

But before the dance was done, Cap o' Rushes slipped off and away she went home. And when the other maids came back she was pretending to be asleep with her cap o' rushes on.

Well, next morning they said to her: "You did miss a sight, Cap o' Rushes!"

"What was that?" says she.

"Why, the beautifullest lady you ever saw, dressed right gay and ga'. The young master--he never took his eyes off her."

"Well, I should like to have seen her," says Cap o' Rushes.

"Well, there's to be another dance this evening, and perhaps she'll be there."

But, come the evening, Cap o' Rushes said she was too tired to go with them. Howsoever, when they were gone, she offed with her cap o' rushes, cleaned herself, and away she went to the dance.

The master's son had been reckoning on seeing her, and he danced with no one else, and never took his eyes off her. But before the dance was over she slipped off and home she went, and when the maids came back she pretended to be asleep with her cap o' rushes on.

Next day they said to her again: "Well, Cap o' Rushes, you should have been there to see the lady. There she was again, gay and ga', and the young master--he never took his eyes off her."

"Well, there," says she, "I should ha' liked to ha' seen her."

"Well," says they, "there's a dance again this evening, and you must go with us, for she's sure to be there."

Well, come this evening, Cap o' Rushes said she was too tired to go; and do what they would she stayed at home. But when they were gone, she offed with her cap o' rushes and cleaned herself, and away she went to the dance.

The master's son was rarely glad when he saw her. He danced with none but her, and never took his eyes off her. When she wouldn't tell him her name, nor where she came from, he gave her a ring, and told her if he didn't see her again he should die.

Well, before the dance was over, off she slipped, and home she went; and when the maids came home she was pretending to be asleep with her cap o' rushes on.

Well, next day they says to her: "There, Cap o' Rushes, you didn't come last night, and now you won't see the lady, for there's no more dances."

"Well, I should have rarely liked to have seen her," says she.

The master's son he tried every way to find out where the lady was gone; but go where he might, and ask whom he might, he never heard anything about her. And he got worse and worse for the love of her, till he had to keep to his bed.

"Make some gruel for the young master," they said to the cook. "He's dying for the love of the lady." The cook set about making it, when Cap o' Rushes came in.

"What are you a-doing of?" says she.

"I'm going to make some gruel for the young master," says the cook, "for he's dying for love of the lady."

"Let me make it," says Cap o' Rushes.

Well, the cook wouldn't at first, but at last she said yes, and Cap o' Rushes made the gruel. And when she had made it she slipped the ring into it on the sly before the cook took it upstairs.

The young man he drank it, and then he saw the ring at the bottom.

"Send for the cook," says he.

So up she came.

"Who made this gruel here?" says he.

"I did," says the cook, for she was frightened.

And he looked at her.

"No, you didn't," says he. "Say who did it, and you shan't be harmed."

"Well, then, 't was Cap o' Rushes," says she.

"Send Cap o' Rushes here," says he.

So Cap o' Rushes came.

"Did you make my gruel?" says he.

"Yes, I did," says she.

"Where did you get this ring?" says he.

"From him that gave it me," says she.

"Who are you, then?" says the young man.

"I'll show you," says she. And she offed with her cap o' rushes, and there she was in her beautiful clothes.