Part 34 (1/2)

”'Yes! you shall have it,' said the old fellow. 'Better late than never, my boy.'

”So he got brandy in a flask, and food in his wallet, and then he threw his fare on his back and toddled down the hill. And when he had walked a while, he fell upon an old wife who lay by the road side.

”'Ah! my dear boy, give me a morsel of food to-day,' said the old wife.

”But Peter hardly so much as looked on one side, and then he held his head straight and went on his way.

”'Ay, ay,' said the old wife, 'go along, and you shall see what you shall see.'

”So Peter went far and farther than far, till he came at last to the king's grange. There stood the king in the gallery, feeding the c.o.c.ks and hens.

”'Good evening and G.o.d bless your majesty,” said Peter.

”'Chick-a-biddy! chick-a-biddy!' said the king, and scattered corn both east and west, and took no heed of Peter.

”'Well!' said Peter to himself, 'you may just stand there and scatter corn and cackle chicken-tongue till you turn into a bear,' and so he went into the kitchen and sat down on the bench as though he were a great man.

”'What sort of a stripling are you,' said the cook, for Peter had not yet got his beard. That he thought jibes and mocking, and so he fell to beating and banging the kitchen-maid. But while he was hard at it, in came the king, and made them cut three red stripes out of his back, and then they rubbed salt into the wound, and sent him home again the same way he came.

”Now as soon as Peter was well home, Paul must set off in his turn.

Well! well! he too got brandy in his flask and food in his wallet, and he threw his fare over his back and toddled down the hill. When he had got on his way he, too, met the old wife, who begged for food, but he strode past her and made no answer; and at the king's grange he did not fare a pin better than Peter. The king called 'chick-a-biddy,' and the kitchen-maid called him a clumsy boy, and when he was going to bang and beat her for that, in came the king with a butcher's knife, and cut three red stripes out of him, and rubbed hot embers in, and sent him home again with a sore back.

”Then Boots crept out the cinders, and fell to shaking himself. The first day he shook all the ashes off him, the second he washed and combed himself, and the third he dressed himself in his Sunday best.

”'Nay! nay! just look at him,' said Peter. 'Now we have got a new sun s.h.i.+ning here. I'll be bound you are off to the king's grange to win his daughter and half the kingdom. Far better bide in the dusthole and lie in the ashes, that you had.'

”But Boots was deaf in that ear, and he went in to his father and asked leave to go out a little into the world.

”'What are you to do out in the world?' said the grey-beard. 'It did not fare so well either with Peter or Paul, and what do you think will become of you?'

”But Boots would not give way, and so at last he had leave to go.

”His brothers were not for letting him have a morsel of food with him, but his mother gave him a cheese rind and a bone with very little meat on it, and with them he toddled away from the cottage. As he went he took his time. 'You'll be there soon enough,' he said to himself. 'You have all the day before you, and afterwards the moon will rise, if you have any luck.' So he put his best foot foremost, and puffed up the hills, and all the while looked about him on the road.

”After a long, long way he met the old wife, who lay by the road side.

”'The poor old cripple,' said Boots, 'I'll be bound you are starving.'

”'Yes! she was,' said the old wife.

”'Are you? then I'll go shares with you,' said Osborn Boots, and as he said that he gave her the rind of cheese.

”'You're freezing too,' he said, as he saw how her teeth chattered. 'You must take this old jacket of mine. It's not good in the arms, and thin in the back, but once on a time, when it was new, it was a good wrap.'

”'Bide a bit,' said the old wife, as she fumbled down in her big pocket, 'Here you have an old key, I have nothing better or worse to give you, but when you look through the ring at the top, you can see whatever you choose to see.'

”So when he got to the king's grange the cook was hard at work drawing water, and that was great toil to her.

”'It's too heavy for you,' said Boots, 'but it's just what I am fit to do.'