Part 42 (1/2)

”'Something dreadful is going to happen,' thought the lad, but he said nothing out loud.

”Then the rat whistled, and there came swarming out such a lot of small rats and mice out of all the holes and crannies, and six big rats came harnessed to a frying-pan; two mice got up behind as footmen, and two got up before and drove; some, too, got into the pan, and the rat with the bunch of keys at her tail took her seat among them. Then she said to the lad,

”'The road is a little narrow here, so you must be good enough to walk by the side of the carriage, my darling boy, till it gets broader, and then you shall have leave to sit up in the carriage alongside of me.'

”'Very fine that will be, I dare say,' thought the lad. 'If I were only well above ground, I'd run away from the whole pack of you.' That was what he thought, but he said nothing out loud!

”So he followed them as well as he could; sometimes he had to creep on all fours, and sometimes he had to stoop and bend his back well, for the road was low and narrow in places; but when it got broader he went on in front, and looked about him how he might best give them the slip and run away. But as he went forward he heard a clear, sweet voice behind him, which said, ”'Now the road is good. Come, my dear, and get up into the carriage.'

”The lad turned round in a trice, and had near lost both nose and ears.

There stood the grandest carriage with six white horses to it, and in the carriage sat a maiden, as bright and lovely as the sun, and round her sat others who were as pretty and soft as stars. They were a princess and her playfellows, who had been bewitched all together. But now they were free because he had come down to them, and never said a word against them.

”'Come now,' said the princess. So the lad stepped up into the carriage, and they drove to church, and when they drove from church again the princess said, 'Now, we will drive first to my house, and then we'll send to fetch your mother.'

”'That is all very well!' thought the lad, for he still said nothing, even now; but, for all that, he thought it would be better to go home to his mother than down into that nasty rat-hole. But just as he thought that, they came to a grand castle; into it they turned, and there they were to dwell. And so a grand carriage with six horses was sent to fetch the goody, and when it came back they set to work at the wedding feast.

It lasted fourteen days, and maybe they are still at it. So let us all make haste; perhaps, we too may come in time to drink the bride-groom's health and dance with the bride.”

THE GREEN KNIGHT.

”Once on a time there was a king who was a widower, and he had an only daughter. But it is an old saying, that widower's grief is like knocking your funny-bone, it hurts, but it soon pa.s.ses away; and so the king married a queen who had two daughters. Now, this queen--well! she was no better than step-mothers are wont to be, snappish and spiteful she always was to her step-daughter.

”Well! a long time after, when they were grown up, these three girls, war broke out, and the king had to go forth to fight for his country and his kingdom. But before he went the three daughters had leave to say what the king should buy and bring home for each of them, if he won the day against the foe.

”So the step-daughters were to speak first, as you may fancy, and say what they wished.

”Well! the first wished for a golden spinning-wheel, so small that it could stand on a sixpenny-piece; and the second, she begged for a golden winder, so small that it could stand on a sixpenny-piece; that was what they wanted to have, and till they had them there was no spinning or winding to be got out of them. But his own daughter, she would ask for no other thing than that he would greet the Green Knight in her name.

”So the king went out to war, and whithersoever he went he won, and however things turned out he brought the things he had promised his step-daughters; but he had clean forgotten what his own daughter had begged him to do, till at last he made a feast because he had won the day.

”Then it was that he set eyes on a Green Knight, and all at once his daughter's words came into his head, and he greeted him in her name. The Green Knight thanked him for the greeting, and gave him a book which looked like a hymn-book with parchment clasps. That the king was to take home and give her; but he was not to unclasp it, or the princess either, till she was all alone.

”So, when the king had done fighting and feasting he went home again, and he had scarce got inside the door before his step-daughters clung round him to get what he had promised to buy them. 'Yes,' he said, he had brought them what they wished; but his own daughter, she held back and asked for nothing, and the king forgot all about it too, till one day, when he was going out, and he put on the coat he had worn at the feast, and just as he thrust his hand into his pocket for his handkerchief, he felt the book and knew what it was.

”So he gave it to his daughter, and said he was to greet her with it from the Green Knight, and she mustn't unclasp it till she was all alone.

”Well! that evening when she was by herself in her bedroom she unclasped the book, and as soon as she did so she heard a strain of music, so sweet she had never heard the like of it, and then, what do you think!

Why, the Green Knight came to her and told her the book was such a book that whenever she unclasped it he must come to her, and it would be all the same wherever she might be, and when she clasped it again he would be off and away again.

”Well! she unclasped the book often and often in the evenings when she was alone and at rest, and the knight always came to her and was almost always there. But her step-mother, who was always thrusting her nose into everything, she found out there was some one with her in her room, and she was not long in telling it to the king. But he wouldn't believe it. 'No!' he said, they must watch first and see if it was so before they trumped up such stories, and took her to task for them.

”So one evening they stood outside the door and listened, and it seemed as though they heard some one talking inside; but when they went in there was no one.

”'Who was it you were talking with? asked the step-mother, both sharp and cross.

”'It was no one, indeed,' said the princess.