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

this old woman also was standing drawing water out of the well

with her nose.

`Good-evening, mother,’ said the man.

`Good-evening to you,’ said the old woman. `No one has ever

called me mother this hundred years.’

`Can I lodge here to-night?’ said the man.

`No,’ said the old woman.

Then he took out the roll of tobacco, took a whiff, and gave the

old woman some snuff on the back of her hand. Then she was so

delighted that she began to dance, and the man got leave to stay

all night. It was not long before he began to ask about Farmer

Weatherbeard.

She knew nothing about him, but she ruled over all the fishes,

she said, and perhaps some of them might know something. So

she gathered them all together by blowing a whistle which she

had, and questioned them, but there was not one of them which

knew anything about Farmer Weatherbeard.

`Well,’ said the old woman, `I have another sister; perhaps

she may know something about him. She lives six hundred miles

off, but you shall have my horse and carriage, and then you will

get there by nightfall.’

So the man set off and he got there by nightfall. The old

woman was standing raking the fire, and she was doing it with her

nose, so long it was.

`Good-evening, mother,’ said the man.

`Good-evening to you,’ said the old woman. `No one has

called me mother this hundred years.’

`Can I lodge here to-night?’ said the man.

`No,’ said the old woman. But the man pulled out his roll of

tobacco again, and filled his pipe with some of it, and gave the old

woman enough snuff to cover the back of her hand. Then she was

so delighted that she began to dance, and the man got leave to stay

in her house. It was not long before he asked about Farmer

Weatherbeard. She knew nothing at all about him, she said, but

she governed all the birds; and she gathered them together

with her whistle. When she questioned them all, the eagle was

not there, but it came soon afterwards, and when asked, it said

that it had just come from Farmer Weatherbeard’s. Then the old

woman said that it was to guide the man to him. But the eagle

would have something to eat first, and then it wanted to wait

until the next day, for it was so tired with the long journey that it

was scarcely able to rise from the earth.

When the eagle had had plenty of food and rest, the old woman

plucked a feather out of its tail, and set the man in the feather’s

place, and then the bird flew away with him, but they did not get

to Farmer Weatherbeard’s before midnight.

When they got there the Eagle said: `There are a great many

dead bodies lying outside the door, but you must not concern

yourself about them. The people who are inside the house are all

so sound asleep that it will not be easy to awake them; but you

must go straight to the table-drawer, and take out three bits of

bread, and if you hear anyone snoring, pluck three feathers from

his head; he will not waken for that.’

The man did this; when he had got the bits of bread he first

plucked out one feather.

`Oof!’ screamed Farmer Weatherbeard.

So the man plucked out another, and then Farmer Weatherbeard

shrieked `Oof!’ again; but when the man had plucked the third,

Farmer Weatherbeard screamed so loudly that the man thought

that brick and mortar would be rent in twain, but for all that he

went on sleeping. And now the Eagle told the man what he was

to do next, and he did it. He went to the stable door, and there

he stumbled against a hard stone, which he picked up, and beneath

it lay three splinters of wood, which he also picked up. He knocked

at the stable door and it opened at once. He threw down the three

little bits of bread and a hare came out and ate them. He caught

the hare. Then the Eagle told him to pluck three feathers out of

its tail, and put in the hare, the stone, the splinters of wood and

himself instead of them, and then he would be able to carry them

all home.

When the Eagle had flown a long way it alighted on a stone.

`Do you see anything?’ it asked.

`Yes; I see a flock of crows coming flying after us,’ said the

man.

`Then we shall do well to fly on a little farther,’ said the Eagle,

and off it set.

In a short time it asked again, `Do you see anything now?’

`Yes; now the crows are close behind us,’ said the man.

`Then throw down the three feathers which you plucked out of

his head,’ said the Eagle.

So the man did this, and no sooner had he flung them down

than the feathers became a flock of ravens, which chased the crows

home again. Then the Eagle flew on much farther with the man,

but at length it alighted on a stone for a while.

`Do you see anything?’ it said.

`I am not quite certain,’ said the man, `but I think I see

something coming in the far distance.’

`Then we shall do well to fly on a little farther,’ said the Eagle,

and away it went.

`Do you see anything now?’ it said, after some time had gone

by.

`Yes; now they are close behind us,’ said the man.

`Then throw down the splinters of wood which you took from

beneath the gray stone by the stable door,’ said the Eagle. The

man did this, and no sooner had he flung them down than they

grew up into a great thick wood, and Farmer Weatherbeard had to

go home for an axe to cut his way through it. So the Eagle flew on

a long, long way, but then it grew tired and sat down on a fir tree.

`Do you see anything?’ it asked.

`Yes; I am not quite certain,’ said the man, `but I think I can

catch a glimpse of something far, far away.’

`Then we shall do well to fly on a little farther,’ said the Eagle,

and it set off again.

`Do you see anything now?’ it said after some time had gone by.

`Yes; he is close behind us now,’ said the man.

`Then you must fling down the great stone which you took away

from the stable door,’ said the Eagle.

The man did so, and it turned into a great high mountain of

stone, which Farmer Weatherbeard had to break his way through

before he could follow them. But when he had got to the middle

of the mountain he broke one of his legs, so he had to go home to

get it put right.

While he was doing this the Eagle flew off to the man’s home

with him, and with the hare, and when they had got home the man

went to the churchyard, and had some Christian earth laid upon the

hare, and then it turned into his son Jack.

When the time came for the fair the youth turned himself into

a light-coloured horse, and bade his father go to the market with

him. `If anyone should come who wants to buy me,’ said he,

`you are to tell him that you want a hundred dollars for me; but

you must not forget to take off the halter, for if you do I shall

never be able to get away from Farmer Weatherbeard, for he is the

man who will come and bargain for me.’

And thus it happened. A horse-dealer came who had a great

fancy to bargain for the horse, and the man got a hundred dollars

for it, but when the bargain was made, and Jack’s father had got

the money, the horse-dealer wanted to have the halter.

`That was no part of our bargain,’ said the man, `and the

halter you shall not have, for I have other horses which I shall

have to sell.’

So each of them went his way. But the horse dealer had not

got very far with Jack before he resumed his own form again, and

when the man got home he was sitting on the bench by the stove.

The next day he changed himself into a brown horse and told

his father that he was to set off to market with him. `If a man should

come who wants to buy me,’ said Jack, `you are to tell him that you

want two hundred dollars, for that he will give, and treat you besides;

but whatsoever you drink, and whatsoever you do, don’t forget to

take the halter off me, or you will never see me more.’

And thus it happened. The man got his two hundred dollars for

the horse, and was treated as well, and when they parted from each

other it was just as much as he could do to remember to take off

the halter. But the buyer had not got far on his way before the

youth took his own form again, and when the man reached home

Jack was already sitting on the bench by the stove.

On the third day all happened in the same way. The youth

changed himself into a great black horse, and told his father that if

a man came and offered him three hundred dollars, and treated him

well and handsomely into the bargain, he was to sell him, but

whatsoever he did, or how much soever he drank, he must not forget

to take off the halter, or else he himself would never get away

from Farmer Weatherbeard as long as he lived.

`No,’ said the man, `I will not forget.’

When he got to the market, he received the three hundred

dollars, but Farmer Weatherbeard treated him so handsomely that

he quite forgot to take off the halter; so Farmer Weatherbeard went

away with the horse.

When he had got some distance he had to go into an inn to get

some more brandy; so he set a barrel full of red-hot nails under his

horse’s nose, and a trough filled with oats beneath its tail, and then

he tied the halter fast to a hook and went away into the inn.

So the horse stood there stamping, and kicking, and snorting, and

rearing, and out came a girl who thought it a sin and a shame to

treat a horse so ill.

`Ah, poor creature, what a master you must have to treat you

thus!’ she said, and pushed the halter off the hook so that the horse

might turn round and eat the oats.

`I am here!’ shrieked Farmer Weatherbeard, rushing out of

doors. But the horse had already shaken off the halter and flung

himself into a goose-pond, where he changed himself into a little

fish. Farmer Weatherbeard went after him, and changed himself

into a great pike. So Jack turned himself into a dove, and Farmer

Weatherbeard turned himself into a hawk, and flew after the dove

and struck it. But a Princess was standing at a window in the

King’s palace watching the struggle.

`If thou didst but know as much as I know, thou wouldst fly

in to me through the window,’ said the Princess to the dove.

So the dove came flying in through the window and changed

itself into Jack again,