The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang (interesting novels to read .txt) 📕

is no help,’ said the youth.

`But I dare not go to the Governor and say this. He is so rich

and has so much wealth of all kinds,’ said the man.

`There is no help for it,’ said the Master Thief; `go you must,

whether you like it or not. If I can’t get you to go by using good

words, I will soon make you go with bad ones.’

But the man was still unwilling, so the Master Thief followed

him, threatening him with a great birch stick, till he went weeping

and wailing through the door to the Governor of the province.

`Now, my man, and what’s amiss with you?’ said the Governor.

So he told him that he had three sons who had gone away one

day, and how he had given them permission to go where they

chose, and take to whatsoever work they fancied. `Now,’ he

said, `the youngest of them has come home, and has threatened

me till I have come to you to ask for your daughter for him, and

I am to say that he is a Master Thief,’ and again the man fell

a-weeping and lamenting.

`Console yourself, my man,’ said the Governor, laughing. `You

may tell him from me that he must first give me some proof of

this. If he can steal the joint off the spit in the kitchen on Sunday,

when every one of us is watching it, he shall have my daughter.

Will you tell him that?’

The man did tell him, and the youth thought it would be easy

enough to do it. So he set himself to work to catch three hares

alive, put them in a bag, clad himself in some old rags so that he

looked so poor and wretched that it was quite pitiable to see him,

and in this guise on Sunday forenoon he sneaked into the passage

with his bag, like any beggar boy. The Governor himself and

every one in the house was in the kitchen, keeping watch over the

joint. While they were doing this the youth let one of the hares

slip out of his bag, and off it set and began to run round the yard.

`Just look at that hare,’ said the people in the kitchen, and

wanted to go out and catch it.

The Governor saw it too, but said, `Oh, let it go! it’s no use to

think of catching a hare when it’s running away.’

It was not long before the youth let another hare out, and the

people in the kitchen saw this too, and thought that it was the same.

So again they wanted to go out and catch it, but the Governor again

told them that it was of no use to try.

Very soon afterwards, however, the youth let slip the third

hare, and it set off and ran round and round the courtyard. The

people in the kitchen saw this too, and believed that it was still the

same hare that was running about, so they wanted to go out and

catch it.

`It’s a remarkably fine hare!’ said the Governor. `Come

and let us see if we can get hold of it.’ So out he went, and the

others with him, and away went the hare, and they after it, in real

earnest.

In the meantime, however, the Master Thief took the joint and

ran off with it, and whether the Governor got any roast meat for

his dinner that day I know not, but I know that he had no roast

hare, though he chased it till he was both hot and tired.

At noon came the Priest, and when the Governor had told him

of the trick played by the Master Thief there was no end to the

ridicule he cast on the Governor.

`For my part,’ said the Priest, `I can’t imagine myself being

made a fool of by such a fellow as that!’

`Well, I advise you to be careful,’ said the Governor, `for he

may be with you before you are at all aware.’

But the Priest repeated what he had said, and mocked the

Governor for having allowed himself to be made such a fool of.

Later in the afternoon the Master Thief came and wanted to

have the Governor’s daughter as he had promised.

`You must first give some more samples of your skill,’ said the

Governor, trying to speak him fair, `for what you did to-day was no

such very great thing after all. Couldn’t you play off a really good

trick on the Priest? for he is sitting inside there and calling me a

fool for having let myself be taken in by such a fellow as you.’

`Well, it wouldn’t be very hard to do that,’ said the Master

Thief. So he dressed himself up like a bird, and threw a great white

sheet over himself; broke off a goose’s wings, and set them on his

back; and in this attire climbed into a great maple tree which stood

in the Priest’s garden. So when the Priest returned home in the

evening the youth began to cry, `Father Lawrence! Father

Lawrence! `for the Priest was called Father Lawrence.

`Who is calling me?’ said the Priest.

`I am an angel sent to announce to thee that because of thy

piety thou shalt be taken away alive into heaven,’ said the Master

Thief. `Wilt thou hold thyself in readiness to travel away next

Monday night? for then will I come and fetch thee, and bear thee

away with me in a sack, and thou must lay all thy gold and silver,

and whatsoever thou may ‘st possess of this world’s wealth, in a heap

in thy best parlour.’

So Father Lawrence fell down on his knees before the angel

and thanked him, and the following Sunday he preached a farewell

sermon, and gave out that an angel had come down into the large

maple tree in his garden, and had announced to him that, because

of his righteousness, he should be taken up alive into heaven, and

as he thus preached and told them this everyone in the church,

old or young, wept.

On Monday night the Master Thief once more came as an angel,

and before the Priest was put into the sack he fell on his knees and

thanked him; but no sooner was the Priest safely inside it than the

Master Thief began to drag him away over stocks and stones.

`Oh! oh! `cried the Priest in the sack. `Where are you taking

me?’

`This is the way to heaven. The way to heaven is not an easy

one,’ said the Master Thief, and dragged him along till he all but

killed him.

At last he flung him into the Governor’s goose-house, and the

geese began to hiss and peck at him, till he felt more dead than

alive.

`Oh! oh! oh! Where am I now?’ asked the Priest.

`Now you are in Purgatory,’ said the Master Thief, and off he

went and took the gold and the silver and all the precious things

which the Priest had laid together in his best parlour.

Next morning, when the goose-girl came to let out the geese, she

heard the Priest bemoaning himself as he lay in the sack in the

goose-house.

`Oh, heavens! who is that, and what ails you?’ said she.

`Oh,’ said the Priest, `if you are an angel from heaven do let

me out and let me go back to earth again, for no place was ever so

bad as this—the little fiends nip me so with their tongs.’

`I am no angel,’ said the girl, and helped the Priest out of the

sack. `I only look after the Governor’s geese, that’s what I do,

and they are the little fiends which have pinched your reverence.’

`This is the Master Thief’s doing! Oh, my gold and my silver

and my best clothes!’ shrieked the Priest, and, wild with rage, he

ran home so fast that the goose-girl thought he had suddenly gone

mad.

When the Governor learnt what had happened to the Priest he

laughed till he nearly killed himself, but when the Master Thief

came and wanted to have his daughter according to promise, he

once more gave him nothing but fine words, and said, `You must

give me one more proof of your skill, so that I can really judge

of your worth. I have twelve horses in my stable, and I will put

twelve stable boys in it, one on each horse. If you are clever

enough to steal the horses from under them, I will see what I can

do for you.’

`What you set me to do can be done,’ said the Master Thief, `but

am I certain to get your daughter when it is?’

`Yes; if you can do that I will do my best for you,’ said the

Governor.

So the Master Thief went to a shop, and bought enough brandy

to fill two pocket flasks, and he put a sleeping drink into one of

these, but into the other he poured brandy only. Then he engaged

eleven men to lie that night in hiding behind the Governor’s

stable. After this, by fair words and good payment, he borrowed a

ragged gown and a jerkin from an aged woman, and then, with a

staff in his hand and a poke on his back, he hobbled off as evening

came on towards the Governor’s stable. The stable boys were just

watering the horses for the night, and it was quite as much as they

could do to attend to that.

`What on earth do you want here?’ said one of them to the

old woman.

`Oh dear! oh dear! How cold it is!’ she said, sobbing, and

shivering with cold. `Oh dear! oh dear! it’s cold enough to freeze

a poor old body to death!’ and she shivered and shook again, and

said, `For heaven’s sake give me leave to stay here and sit just

inside the stable door.’

`You will get nothing of the kind! Be off this moment! If the

Governor were to catch sight of you here, he would lead us a pretty

dance,’ said one.

`Oh! what a poor helpless old creature!’ said another, who felt

sorry for her. `That poor old woman can do no harm to anyone.

She may sit there and welcome.’

The rest of them thought that she ought not to stay, but while

they were disputing about this and looking after the horses, she

crept farther and farther into the stable, and at last sat down behind

the door, and when once she was inside no one took any more notice

of her.

As the night wore on the stable boys found it rather cold work

to sit still on horseback.

`Hutetu! But it is fearfully cold!’ said one, and began to beat

his arms backwards and forwards across his breast.

`Yes, I am so cold that my teeth are chattering,’ said another.

`If one had but a little tobacco,’ said a third.

Well, one of them had a little, so they shared it among them,

though there was very little for each man, but they chewed it. This

was some help to them, but very soon they were just as cold as before.

`Hutetu!’ said one of them, shivering again.

`Hutetu!’ said the old woman, gnashing her teeth together till

they chattered inside her mouth; and then she got out the flask

which contained nothing but brandy, and her hands trembled so

that she shook the bottle about,