Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 01 (17 page)

"Oh! he is dead; and it is all my fault," said Beauty,
crying bitterly.

But then, looking at him again, she fancied he still
breathed, and, hastily fetching some water from the
nearest fountain, she sprinkled it over his face, and,
to her great delight, he began to revive.

"Oh! Beast, how you frightened me!" she cried. "I
never knew how much I loved you until just now, when
I feared I was too late to save your life."

"Can you really love such an ugly creature as I am?"
said the Beast faintly. "Ah! Beauty, you only came just
in time. I was dying because I thought you had forgotten
your promise. But go back now and rest, I shall see you
again by and by."

Beauty, who had half expected that he would be angry
with her, was reassured by his gentle voice, and went
back to the palace, where supper was awaiting her; and
afterward the Beast came in as usual, and talked about
the time she had spent with her father, asking if she had
enjoyed herself, and if they had all been very glad to see
her.

Beauty answered politely, and quite enjoyed telling
him all that had happened to her. And when at last the
time came for him to go, and he asked, as he had so often
asked before, "Beauty, will you marry me?"

She answered softly, "Yes, dear Beast."

As she spoke a blaze of light sprang up before the
windows of the palace; fireworks crackled and guns
banged, and across the avenue of orange trees, in letters
all made of fire-flies, was written: "Long live the Prince
and his Bride."

Turning to ask the Beast what it could all mean,
Beauty found that he had disappeared, and in his place
stood her long-loved Prince! At the same moment the
wheels of a chariot were heard upon the terrace, and two
ladies entered the room. One of them Beauty recognized
as the stately lady she had seen in her dreams; the other
was also so grand and queenly that Beauty hardly knew
which to greet first.

But the one she already knew said to her companion:

"Well, Queen, this is Beauty, who has had the courage
to rescue your son from the terrible enchantment. They
love one another, and only your consent to their marriage
is wanting to make them perfectly happy."

"I consent with all my heart," cried the Queen. "How
can I ever thank you enough, charming girl, for having
restored my dear son to his natural form?"

And then she tenderly embraced Beauty and the
Prince, who had meanwhile been greeting the Fairy and
receiving her congratulations.

"Now," said the Fairy to Beauty, "I suppose you would
like me to send for all your brothers and sisters to dance
at your wedding?"

And so she did, and the marriage was celebrated the
very next day with the utmost splendor, and Beauty and
the Prince lived happily ever after.
[9]

Once upon a time there was a king who had many sons.
I do not exactly know how many there were, but the
youngest of them could not stay quietly at home, and was
determined to go out into the world and try his luck, and
after a long time the King was forced to give him leave
to go. When he had traveled about for several days, he
came to a giant's house, and hired himself to the giant as
a servant. In the morning the giant had to go out to
pasture his goats, and as he was leaving the house he told
the King's son that he must clean out the stable. "And
after you have done that," he said, "you need not do any
more work to-day, for you have come to a kind master,
and that you shall find. But what I set you to do must
be done both well and thoroughly, and you must on no
account go into any of the rooms which lead out of the
room in which you slept last night. If you do, I will take
your life."

"Well to be sure, he is an easy master!" said the Prince
to himself as he walked up and down the room humming
and singing, for he thought there would be plenty of time
left to clean out the stable; "but it would be amusing to
steal a glance into his other rooms as well," thought the
Prince, "for there must be something that he is afraid of
my seeing, as I am not allowed to enter them." So he
went into the first room. A cauldron was hanging from
the walls; it was boiling, but the Prince could see no fire
under it. "I wonder what is inside it," he thought, and
dipped a lock of his hair in, and the hair became just as
if it were all made of copper. "That's a nice kind of soup.
If anyone were to taste that his throat would be gilded,"
said the youth, and then he went into the next chamber.
There, too, a cauldron was hanging from the wall, bubbling
and boiling, but there was no fire under this either.
"I will just try what this is like too," said the Prince,
thrusting another lock of his hair into it, and it came out
silvered over. "Such costly soup is not to be had in my
father's palace," said the Prince; "but everything depends
on how it tastes," and then he went into the third room.
There, too, a cauldron was hanging from the wall, boiling,
exactly the same as in the two other rooms, and the
Prince took pleasure in trying this also, so he dipped a
lock of hair in, and it came out so brightly gilded that it
shone again. "Some talk about going from bad to worse,"
said the Prince; "but this is better and better. If he boils
gold here, what can he boil in there?" He was determined
to see, and went through the door into the fourth room.
No cauldron was to be seen there, but on a bench someone
was seated who was like a king's daughter, but, whosoever
she was, she was so beautiful that never in the
Prince's life had he seen her equal.

"Oh! in heaven's name what are you doing here?" said
she who sat upon the bench.

"I took the place of servant here yesterday," said the
Prince.

"May you soon have a better place, if you have come
to serve here!" said she.

"Oh, but I think I have got a kind master," said the
Prince. "He has not given me hard work to do to-day.
When I have cleaned out the stable I shall be done."

"Yes, but how will you be able to do that?" she asked
again. "If you clean it out as other people do, ten
pitchforksful will come in for every one you throw out. But
I will teach you how to do it; you must turn your pitchfork
upside down, and work with the handle, and then all will
fly out of its own accord."

"Yes, I will attend to that," said the Prince, and stayed
sitting where he was the whole day, for it was soon settled
between them that they would marry each other, he and
the King's daughter; so the first day of his service with
the giant did not seem long to him. But when evening
was drawing near she said that it would now be better for
him to clean out the stable before the giant came home.
When he got there he had a fancy to try if what she had
said were true, so he began to work in the same way that
he had seen the stable-boys doing in his father's stables,
but he soon saw that he must give up that, for when he
had worked a very short time he had scarcely any room
left to stand. So he did what the Princess had taught
him, turned the pitchfork round, and worked with the
handle, and in the twinkling of an eye the stable was as
clean as if it had been scoured. When he had done that,
he went back again into the room in which the giant had
given him leave to stay, and there he walked backward
and forward on the floor, and began to hum and sing.

Then came the giant home with the goats. "Have you
cleaned the stable?" asked the giant.

"Yes, now it is clean and sweet, master," said the King's
son.

"I shall see about that," said the giant, and went round
to the stable, but it was just as the Prince had said.

"You have certainly been talking to my Master-maid,
for you never got that out of your own head," said the
giant.

"Master-maid! What kind of a thing is that, master?"
said the Prince, making himself look as stupid as an ass;
"I should like to see that."

"Well, you will see her quite soon enough," said the
giant.

On the second morning the giant had again to go out
with his goats, so he told the Prince that on that day he
was to fetch home his horse, which was out on the
mountain-side, and when he had done that he might rest
himself for the remainder of the day, "for you have come
to a kind master, and that you shall find," said the giant
once more. "But do not go into any of the rooms that I
spoke of yesterday, or I will wring your head off," said
he, and then went away with his flock of goats.

"Yes, indeed, you are a kind master," said the Prince;
"but I will go in and talk to the Master-maid again;
perhaps before long she may like better to be mine than
yours."

So he went to her. Then she asked him what he had to
do that day.

"Oh! not very dangerous work, I fancy," said the King's
son. "I have only to go up the mountain-side after his
horse."

"Well, how do you mean to set about it?" asked the
Master-maid.

"Oh! there is no great art in riding a horse home," said
the King's son. "I think I must have ridden friskier
horses before now."

"Yes, but it is not so easy a thing as you think to ride
the horse home," said the Master-maid; "but I will teach
you what to do. When you go near it, fire will burst out
of its nostrils like flames from a pine torch; but be very
careful, and take the bridle which is hanging by the door
there, and fling the bit straight into his jaws, and then it
will become so tame that you will be able to do what you
like with it." He said he would bear this in mind, and
then he again sat in there the whole day by the Master-maid,
and they chatted and talked of one thing and
another, but the first thing and the last now was, how
happy and delightful it would be if they could but marry
each other, and get safely away from the giant; and the
Prince would have forgotten both the mountain-side and
the horse if the Master-maid had not reminded him of
them as evening drew near, and said that now it would be
better if he went to fetch the horse before the giant came.
So he did this, and took the bridle which was hanging on
a crook, and strode up the mountain-side, and it was not
long before he met with the horse, and fire and red flames
streamed forth out of its nostrils. But the youth carefully
watched his opportunity, and just as it was rushing
at him with open jaws he threw the bit straight into its
mouth, and the horse stood as quiet as a young lamb, and
there was no difficulty at all in getting it home to the
stable. Then the Prince went back into his room again,
and began to hum and to sing.

Toward evening the giant came home. "Have you
fetched the horse back from the mountain-side?" he
asked.

"That I have, master; it was an amusing horse to ride,
but I rode him straight home, and put him in the stable
too," said the Prince.

"I will see about that," said the giant, and went out to
the stable, but the horse was standing there just as the
Prince had said. "You have certainly been talking with
my Master-maid, for you never got that out of your own
head," said the giant again.

"Yesterday, master, you talked about this Master-maid,
and to-day you are talking about her; ah, heaven
bless you, master, why will you not show me the thing?
for it would be a real pleasure to me to see it," said the
Prince, who again pretended to be silly and stupid.

"Oh! you will see her quite soon enough," said the
giant.

On the morning of the third day the giant again had to
go into the wood with the goats. "To-day you must go
underground and fetch my taxes," he said to the Prince.
"When you have done this, you may rest for the remainder
of the day, for you shall see what an easy master you
have come to," and then he went away.

"Well, however easy a master you may be, you set me
very hard work to do," thought the Prince; "but I will
see if I cannot find your Master-maid; you say she is
yours, but for all that she may be able to tell me what to
do now," and he went back to her. So, when the Master-maid
asked him what the giant had set him to do that
day, he told her that he was to go underground and get
the taxes.

"And how will you set about that?" said the Master-maid.

"Oh! you must tell me how to do it," said the Prince,
"for I have never yet been underground, and even if I
knew the way I do not know how much I am to demand."

"Oh! yes, I will soon tell you that; you must go to the
rock there under the mountain-ridge, and take the club
that is there, and knock on the rocky wall," said the
Master-maid. "Then someone will come out who will
sparkle with fire; you shall tell him your errand, and
when he asks you how much you want to have you are to
say: 'As much as I can carry.'"

"Yes, I will keep that in mind," said he, and then he
sat there with the Master-maid the whole day, until night
drew near, and he would gladly have stayed there till
now if the Master-maid had not reminded him that it was
time to be off to fetch the taxes before the giant came.

So he set out on his way, and did exactly what the
Master-maid had told him. He went to the rocky wall,
and took the club, and knocked on it. Then came one so
full of sparks that they flew both out of his eyes and his
nose. "What do you want?" said he.

"I was to come here for the giant, and demand the tax
for him," said the King's son.

"How much are you to have then?" said the other.

"I ask for no more than I am able to carry with me,"
said the Prince.

"It is well for you that you have not asked for a horse-load,"
said he who had come out of the rock. "But now
come in with me."

This the Prince did, and what a quantity of gold and
silver he saw! It was lying inside the mountain like heaps
of stones in a waste place, and he got a load that was as
large as he was able to carry, and with that he went his
way. So in the evening, when the giant came home with
the goats, the Prince went into the chamber and hummed
and sang again as he had done on the other two evenings.