The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang (e novels for free .txt) 📖
- Author: Andrew Lang
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is no help,’ said the youth.
`But I dare not go to the Governor and say this. He is so rich
and has so much wealth of all kinds,’ said the man.
`There is no help for it,’ said the Master Thief; `go you must,
whether you like it or not. If I can’t get you to go by using good
words, I will soon make you go with bad ones.’
But the man was still unwilling, so the Master Thief followed
him, threatening him with a great birch stick, till he went weeping
and wailing through the door to the Governor of the province.
`Now, my man, and what’s amiss with you?’ said the Governor.
So he told him that he had three sons who had gone away one
day, and how he had given them permission to go where they
chose, and take to whatsoever work they fancied. `Now,’ he
said, `the youngest of them has come home, and has threatened
me till I have come to you to ask for your daughter for him, and
I am to say that he is a Master Thief,’ and again the man fell
a-weeping and lamenting.
`Console yourself, my man,’ said the Governor, laughing. `You
may tell him from me that he must first give me some proof of
this. If he can steal the joint off the spit in the kitchen on Sunday,
when every one of us is watching it, he shall have my daughter.
Will you tell him that?’
The man did tell him, and the youth thought it would be easy
enough to do it. So he set himself to work to catch three hares
alive, put them in a bag, clad himself in some old rags so that he
looked so poor and wretched that it was quite pitiable to see him,
and in this guise on Sunday forenoon he sneaked into the passage
with his bag, like any beggar boy. The Governor himself and
every one in the house was in the kitchen, keeping watch over the
joint. While they were doing this the youth let one of the hares
slip out of his bag, and off it set and began to run round the yard.
`Just look at that hare,’ said the people in the kitchen, and
wanted to go out and catch it.
The Governor saw it too, but said, `Oh, let it go! it’s no use to
think of catching a hare when it’s running away.’
It was not long before the youth let another hare out, and the
people in the kitchen saw this too, and thought that it was the same.
So again they wanted to go out and catch it, but the Governor again
told them that it was of no use to try.
Very soon afterwards, however, the youth let slip the third
hare, and it set off and ran round and round the courtyard. The
people in the kitchen saw this too, and believed that it was still the
same hare that was running about, so they wanted to go out and
catch it.
`It’s a remarkably fine hare!’ said the Governor. `Come
and let us see if we can get hold of it.’ So out he went, and the
others with him, and away went the hare, and they after it, in real
earnest.
In the meantime, however, the Master Thief took the joint and
ran off with it, and whether the Governor got any roast meat for
his dinner that day I know not, but I know that he had no roast
hare, though he chased it till he was both hot and tired.
At noon came the Priest, and when the Governor had told him
of the trick played by the Master Thief there was no end to the
ridicule he cast on the Governor.
`For my part,’ said the Priest, `I can’t imagine myself being
made a fool of by such a fellow as that!’
`Well, I advise you to be careful,’ said the Governor, `for he
may be with you before you are at all aware.’
But the Priest repeated what he had said, and mocked the
Governor for having allowed himself to be made such a fool of.
Later in the afternoon the Master Thief came and wanted to
have the Governor’s daughter as he had promised.
`You must first give some more samples of your skill,’ said the
Governor, trying to speak him fair, `for what you did to-day was no
such very great thing after all. Couldn’t you play off a really good
trick on the Priest? for he is sitting inside there and calling me a
fool for having let myself be taken in by such a fellow as you.’
`Well, it wouldn’t be very hard to do that,’ said the Master
Thief. So he dressed himself up like a bird, and threw a great white
sheet over himself; broke off a goose’s wings, and set them on his
back; and in this attire climbed into a great maple tree which stood
in the Priest’s garden. So when the Priest returned home in the
evening the youth began to cry, `Father Lawrence! Father
Lawrence! `for the Priest was called Father Lawrence.
`Who is calling me?’ said the Priest.
`I am an angel sent to announce to thee that because of thy
piety thou shalt be taken away alive into heaven,’ said the Master
Thief. `Wilt thou hold thyself in readiness to travel away next
Monday night? for then will I come and fetch thee, and bear thee
away with me in a sack, and thou must lay all thy gold and silver,
and whatsoever thou may ‘st possess of this world’s wealth, in a heap
in thy best parlour.’
So Father Lawrence fell down on his knees before the angel
and thanked him, and the following Sunday he preached a farewell
sermon, and gave out that an angel had come down into the large
maple tree in his garden, and had announced to him that, because
of his righteousness, he should be taken up alive into heaven, and
as he thus preached and told them this everyone in the church,
old or young, wept.
On Monday night the Master Thief once more came as an angel,
and before the Priest was put into the sack he fell on his knees and
thanked him; but no sooner was the Priest safely inside it than the
Master Thief began to drag him away over stocks and stones.
`Oh! oh! `cried the Priest in the sack. `Where are you taking
me?’
`This is the way to heaven. The way to heaven is not an easy
one,’ said the Master Thief, and dragged him along till he all but
killed him.
At last he flung him into the Governor’s goose-house, and the
geese began to hiss and peck at him, till he felt more dead than
alive.
`Oh! oh! oh! Where am I now?’ asked the Priest.
`Now you are in Purgatory,’ said the Master Thief, and off he
went and took the gold and the silver and all the precious things
which the Priest had laid together in his best parlour.
Next morning, when the goose-girl came to let out the geese, she
heard the Priest bemoaning himself as he lay in the sack in the
goose-house.
`Oh, heavens! who is that, and what ails you?’ said she.
`Oh,’ said the Priest, `if you are an angel from heaven do let
me out and let me go back to earth again, for no place was ever so
bad as this—the little fiends nip me so with their tongs.’
`I am no angel,’ said the girl, and helped the Priest out of the
sack. `I only look after the Governor’s geese, that’s what I do,
and they are the little fiends which have pinched your reverence.’
`This is the Master Thief’s doing! Oh, my gold and my silver
and my best clothes!’ shrieked the Priest, and, wild with rage, he
ran home so fast that the goose-girl thought he had suddenly gone
mad.
When the Governor learnt what had happened to the Priest he
laughed till he nearly killed himself, but when the Master Thief
came and wanted to have his daughter according to promise, he
once more gave him nothing but fine words, and said, `You must
give me one more proof of your skill, so that I can really judge
of your worth. I have twelve horses in my stable, and I will put
twelve stable boys in it, one on each horse. If you are clever
enough to steal the horses from under them, I will see what I can
do for you.’
`What you set me to do can be done,’ said the Master Thief, `but
am I certain to get your daughter when it is?’
`Yes; if you can do that I will do my best for you,’ said the
Governor.
So the Master Thief went to a shop, and bought enough brandy
to fill two pocket flasks, and he put a sleeping drink into one of
these, but into the other he poured brandy only. Then he engaged
eleven men to lie that night in hiding behind the Governor’s
stable. After this, by fair words and good payment, he borrowed a
ragged gown and a jerkin from an aged woman, and then, with a
staff in his hand and a poke on his back, he hobbled off as evening
came on towards the Governor’s stable. The stable boys were just
watering the horses for the night, and it was quite as much as they
could do to attend to that.
`What on earth do you want here?’ said one of them to the
old woman.
`Oh dear! oh dear! How cold it is!’ she said, sobbing, and
shivering with cold. `Oh dear! oh dear! it’s cold enough to freeze
a poor old body to death!’ and she shivered and shook again, and
said, `For heaven’s sake give me leave to stay here and sit just
inside the stable door.’
`You will get nothing of the kind! Be off this moment! If the
Governor were to catch sight of you here, he would lead us a pretty
dance,’ said one.
`Oh! what a poor helpless old creature!’ said another, who felt
sorry for her. `That poor old woman can do no harm to anyone.
She may sit there and welcome.’
The rest of them thought that she ought not to stay, but while
they were disputing about this and looking after the horses, she
crept farther and farther into the stable, and at last sat down behind
the door, and when once she was inside no one took any more notice
of her.
As the night wore on the stable boys found it rather cold work
to sit still on horseback.
`Hutetu! But it is fearfully cold!’ said one, and began to beat
his arms backwards and forwards across his breast.
`Yes, I am so cold that my teeth are chattering,’ said another.
`If one had but a little tobacco,’ said a third.
Well, one of them had a little, so they shared it among them,
though there was very little for each man, but they chewed it. This
was some help to them, but very soon they were just as cold as before.
`Hutetu!’ said one of them, shivering again.
`Hutetu!’ said the old woman, gnashing her teeth together till
they chattered inside her mouth; and then she got out the flask
which contained nothing but brandy, and her hands trembled so
that she shook the bottle about,
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