Part 22 (1/2)
”Who is bringing me all this?” asked the king when he saw it.
”A little lad,” replied the king's servants.
”Lead him in to me,” said the king. ”I'd like to see him.”
Accordingly, the boy was led before the throne.
”What is your name, my lad?” asked the king kindly.
”I am called Jose the Beast Slayer, your majesty,” replied the boy as he bowed low before the throne.
”Who are your parents?” asked the king.
”My father is dead,” replied Jose, ”and my mother is a princess who ran away from a tower in the forest.”
Jose had often heard the story of his mother's life in the tower. It was the tale he liked best of all.
At the boy's words the king started and looked at him sharply.
”Tell me about this tower,” he said eagerly.
”It was a tower in the deep forest,” replied Jose. ”It had no door, only a little window through which food was pa.s.sed to her. She could never have any meat with a bone. This was because the Wise Man of the Forest had told her father that it was the best way to bring her up.
One day her father went away and the servants gave her meat with a bone in it and--”
”I always suspected something like that,” interrupted the king.
Jose looked at him in surprise.
”Were you there?” he asked.
The king nodded. ”Go on with your story, my boy,” he said.
Jose told all the circ.u.mstances of his mother's escape from the tower, just as she had so often described them to him. Tears were running down the king's cheeks when at last the story was ended.
”My lad, you are my own grandson!” cried the king as he took him in his arms. ”Proud am I, too, that I have a grandson like you! Where is your mother now?”
”My mother is in the house in the forest,” replied Jose. ”It is she who told me to carry the money to the king.”
”Why did she never come to me?” asked the father.
”I think she was afraid she'd be punished for running away from the tower without any door,” was Jose's reply.
When the princess was brought home to the royal palace there was a great feast held which lasted for three days and three nights. Then the king sent his men with Jose into the forest to the cave where the giant had lived. They brought home so many bags of gold that it required the entire royal army to transport it.
Years pa.s.sed, and when the old king died it was Jose the Beast Slayer who was king of the land.