Part 26 (1/2)

”'Tis such a long way to the hill overlooking the sea, I fear me I shall never walk it,” said his mother. ”I think I had better bide at home.”

”Nay,” replied her husband, ”that would be a bonny-like thing, when all the country-side is to be there. Thou shalt ride behind me on my good mare Go-Swift.”

”I do not care to trouble thee to take me behind thee,” said his wife, ”for methinks thou dost not love me as thou wert wont to do.”

”The woman's havering,” cried the Goodman of the house impatiently.

”What makes thee think that I have ceased to love thee?”

”Because thou wilt no longer tell me thy secrets,” answered his wife.

”To go no further, think of this very horse, Go-Swift. For five long years I have been begging thee to tell me how it is that, when thou ridest her, she flies faster than the wind, while if any other man mount her, she hirples along like a broken-down nag.”

The Goodman laughed. ”'Twas not for lack of love, Goodwife,” he said, ”though it might be lack of trust. For women's tongues wag but loosely; and I did not want other folk to ken my secret. But since my silence hath vexed thy heart, I will e'en tell it thee.

”When I want Go-Swift to stand, I give her one clap on the left shoulder. When I would have her go like any other horse, I give her two claps on the right. But when I want her to fly like the wind, I whistle through the windpipe of a goose. And, as I never ken when I want her to gallop like that, I aye keep the bird's thrapple in the left-hand pocket of my coat.”

”So that is how thou managest the beast,” said the farmer's wife, in a satisfied tone; ”and that is what becomes of all my goose thrapples. Oh!

but thou art a clever fellow, Goodman; and now that I ken the way of it I may go to sleep.”

a.s.sipattle was not tumbling about in the ashes now; he was sitting up in the darkness, with glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes.

His opportunity had come at last, and he knew it.

He waited patiently till their heavy breathing told him that his parents were asleep; then he crept over to where his father's clothes were, and took the goose's windpipe out of the pocket of his coat, and slipped noiselessly out of the house. Once he was out of it, he ran like lightning to the stable. He saddled and bridled Go-Swift, and threw a halter round her neck, and led her to the stable door.

The good mare, unaccustomed to her new groom, pranced, and reared, and plunged; but a.s.sipattle, knowing his father's secret, clapped her once on the left shoulder, and she stood as still as a stone. Then he mounted her, and gave her two claps on the right shoulder, and the good horse trotted off briskly, giving a loud neigh as she did so.

The unwonted sound, ringing out in the stillness of the night, roused the household, and the Goodman and his six sons came tumbling down the wooden stairs, shouting to one another in confusion that someone was stealing Go-Swift.

The farmer was the first to reach the door; and when he saw, in the starlight, the vanis.h.i.+ng form of his favourite steed, he cried at the top of his voice:

”Stop thief, ho!

Go-Swift, whoa!”

And when Go-Swift heard that she pulled up in a moment. All seemed lost, for the farmer and his sons could run very fast indeed, and it seemed to a.s.sipattle, sitting motionless on Go-Swift's back, that they would very soon make up on him.

But, luckily, he remembered the goose's thrapple, and he pulled it out of his pocket and whistled through it. In an instant the good mare bounded forward, swift as the wind, and was over the hill and out of reach of its pursuers before they had taken ten steps more.

Day was dawning when the lad came within sight of the sea; and there, in front of him, in the water, lay the enormous Monster whom he had come so far to slay. Anyone would have said that he was mad even to dream of making such an attempt, for he was but a slim, unarmed youth, and the Mester Stoorworm was so big that men said it would reach the fourth part round the world. And its tongue was jagged at the end like a fork, and with this fork it could sweep whatever it chose into its mouth, and devour it at its leisure.

For all this, a.s.sipattle was not afraid, for he had the heart of a hero underneath his tattered garments. ”I must be cautious,” he said to himself, ”and do by my wits what I cannot do by my strength.”

He climbed down from his seat on Go-Swift's back, and tethered the good steed to a tree, and walked on, looking well about him, till he came to a little cottage on the edge of a wood.

The door was not locked, so he entered, and found its occupant, an old woman, fast asleep in bed. He did not disturb her, but he took down an iron pot from the shelf, and examined it closely.

”This will serve my purpose,” he said; ”and surely the old dame would not grudge it if she knew 'twas to save the Princess's life.”

Then he lifted a live peat from the smouldering fire, and went his way.