Part 49 (2/2)

”'Good-day to you,' said the old wife.

”'Have you seen anything of King Valemon, the white bear?' she asked.

”'Maybe it was you who was to have him?' said the old wife.

”'Yes! it was.'

”'Well he pa.s.sed by here the day before yesterday; but he went so fast you'll never be able to catch him up,' she said.

”This little girl played about on the floor with a napkin, which was of that kind that when one said on it, 'Napkin, spread yourself out and be covered with all dainty dishes,' it did so, and where it was there was never any want of a good dinner.

”'But this poor wife,' said the little girl, 'who has to go so far over such bad ways, she may well be starving and suffering much other ill. I dare say she has far more need of this napkin than I;' and so she asked if she might have leave to give her the napkin, and she got it.

”So the princess took the napkin and thanked them, and set off again far and farther than far, away through the same murk wood all that day and night, and in the morning she came to a crossfell which was as steep as a wall, and so high and broad, she could see no end to it. There was a hut there too, and as soon as she set her foot inside it, she said,--

”'Good-day! Have you seen if King Valemon, the white bear, has pa.s.sed this way?'

”'Good-day to you,' said the old wife. 'It was you, maybe, who was to have him?'

”'Yes! it was.'

”'Well! he pa.s.sed by and went up over the hill three days ago; but up that nothing can get that is wingless.'

”That hut, you must know, was all so full of small bairns, and they all hung round their mother's skirts and bawled for food. Then the goody put a pot on the fire full of small round pebbles. When the princess asked what that was for, the goody said they were so poor they had neither food nor clothing, and it went to her heart to hear the children screaming for a morsel of food; but when she put the pot on the fire, and said--

”'The potatoes will soon be ready,' the words dulled their hunger, and they were patient awhile.

”It was not long before the princess brought out the napkin and the flask, that you may be sure, and when the children were all full and glad, she cut them out clothes with her golden scissors.

”'Well!' said the goody in the hut, 'since you have been so kind and good towards me and my bairns, it were a shame if I didn't do all in my power to try to help you over the hill. My husband is one of the best smiths in the world, and now you must lie down and rest till he comes home, and then I'll get him to forge you claws for your hands and feet, and then you can see if you can crawl and scramble up.'

”So when the smith came home, he set to work at once at the claws, and next morning they were ready. She had no time to stay, but said, 'Thank you,' and then clung close to the rock and crept and crawled with the steel claws all that day and the next night, and just as she felt so very very tired that she thought she could scarce lift hand or foot, but must slip down--there she was all right at the top. There she found a plain, with tilled fields and meads, so big and broad, she never thought there could be any land so wide and so flat, and close by was a castle full of workmen of all kinds, who swarmed like ants on an ant-hill.

”'What is going on here?' asked the princess.

”Well! if she must know, there lived the old hag who had bewitched King Valemon, the white bear, and in three days she was to hold her wedding feast with him. Then she asked if she mightn't have a word with her.

'No! was it likely? It was quite impossible.' So she sat down under the window and began to clip in the air with her golden scissors, till the silks and satins flew about as thick as a snow-drift.

”But when the old hag saw that, she was all for buying the golden scissors, for she said, 'All our tailors can do is no good at all, we have too many to find clothes for.'

”So the princess said, 'It was not for sale for money, but she should have it, if she got leave to sleep with her sweetheart that night.'

”'Yes!' the old hag said, 'she might have that leave and, welcome, but she herself must lull him off to sleep and wake him in the morning.'

”And, so when he went to bed she gave him a sleeping draught, so that he could not keep an eye open, for all that the princess cried and wept.

”Next day the princess went under the window again, and began to pour out drink from her flask. It frothed like a brook with ale and wine, and it was never empty. So when the old hag saw that, she was all for buying it, for she said,--

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