Part 39 (1/2)
”'I see naught,' said Boots, 'but land and water and bare sky and high crags.'
”So they went on far and farther than far, and then the a.s.s said again,
”'Do you see anything now?'
”'Yes,' when he had looked well before him, he saw something a long, long way off, that shone like a little star.
”'It will be big enough by-and-by,' said the a.s.s.
”When they had gone a good bit still, the a.s.s asked,
”'Do you see anything now?'
”'Now I see it s.h.i.+ning like a moon,' said the lad.
”'Ay, ay,' said the a.s.s, and on they went.
”So when they had gone far, and farther than far away, over land and strand, and hill and heath, the a.s.s asked,
”'Do you see anything now?'
”'Now, methinks,' said Boots, 'it s.h.i.+nes most like the sun.'
”'Ay,' said the a.s.s, 'that's the golden castle for which we are bound; but outside it lives a worm, which stops the way and keeps watch and ward.'
”'I think I shall be afraid of it,' said Boots.
”'Oh, don't say so,' said the a.s.s, 'we must spread over it heaps of boughs, and lay between them layers of horseshoe brads and nails, and set fire to them all, and so we shall be rid of it.'
”So after a long, long time they came up to where the castle hung in the air, but the worm lay underneath it and stopped the way. So the lad gave the dragons a good meal of beeves and salted swine, that they might help him, and they spread over the worm heaps of boughs and wood, and laid between them layers of nails and brads, till they had used up the three hundred chests, and when it was all done they set fire to the pile and burned up the worm alive, in a fire at white heat.
”So when they had done with him one dragon flew under the castle and lifted it up, and the two others went up high, high into the air, and unloosed the links and hooks by which it hung, and so they lowered it down and set it on the ground. When that was done Boots went inside, and there it was grander far than in the silvern castle, but he could see no folk till he came to the innermost room, and there lay a princess on a bed of gold. She slept so sound, as though she were dead, but she was not, though he was not able to wake her up, for her face was as red and white as milk and blood. And just as Boots stood there gazing at her, back came the troll tearing along. As soon as he put his first head through the door he screamed out,
”'Hu! what a smell of Christian blood there is in here.'
”'Maybe,' said Boots, 'but you've no need to smell and snort about that; you shan't suffer long from it.'
”And with that he cut off all his heads, as though they stood on a kail stalk.
”So the dragons took the golden castle on their backs and went home with it--I fancy they were not long on the way--and set it down side by side with the silvern castle, so that it shone both far and wide.
”Now when the princess of the silvern castle came to her window in the morning, and caught sight of it, she was so glad that she sprang over to the golden castle at once; but when she saw her sister lying there and sleeping as though she were dead, she said to Boots that they would never get life into her before they found the water of life and death, and that stood in two wells on either side of a golden castle which hung in the air, nine hundred miles beyond the world's end, and where the third sister dwelt.
”Well, Boots thought there was no help for it; he must go and fetch it, and it was not long before he was on his way. So he travelled far and farther than far, through many realms, across wood and field, over fell and firth, along hill and heath, and at last he got to the world's end, and after that he travelled far, far over crags and wastes and high rocks.
”'Do you see anything?' asked the a.s.s one day.
”'I see naught but heaven and earth,' said the lad.
”'Do you see anything now?' asked the a.s.s again, when some days were past.