One day the three brothers thought they, too, would
set off and try it. Their father had not a word
to say against it; for even if they did not get the
Princess and half the kingdom, it might happen they
would get a place somewhere with a good master and
that was all he wanted. So when the brothers
asked his permission, he consented at once, and Peter,
Paul and Espen set forth.
Well, they had not gone far before they came to a
fir wood where at one side there rose a steep hill,
and as they went along they heard something hewing
and hacking away up on the hill among the trees.
“I wonder now what it is that is hewing away
up yonder,” said Boots.
“You’re always so clever with your wondering,”
laughed Peter and Paul both at once. “What
wonder is it, pray, that a wood cutter should stand
and hack up on a hillside?”
“Still, I’d like to see what it is, after
all,” said Boots, and up he went.
“Oh, if you’re such a child, ’twill
do you good to go and take a lesson,” called
out his brothers after him.
But Boots didn’t care for what they said; he
climbed the steep hillside towards the spot whence
the noise came, and when he reached the place, what
do you think he saw? Why, an axe that stood there
hacking and hewing, all of itself, at the trunk of
a fir tree.
“Good-day,” said Boots. “So
you stand here all alone and hew, do you?”
“Yes, here I’ve stood and hewed and hacked
for hundreds of years, waiting for you,” said
the axe.
“Well, here I am at last,” said Boots,
as he took the axe, pulled it off its haft, and stuffed
both head and haft into his wallet.
When he got down again to his brothers, they began
to jeer and laugh at him.
“And now, what strange thing was it you saw
up yonder on the hillside?” they asked.
“Oh, it was only an axe we heard,” said
Boots.
When they had gone on a bit farther, their road passed
under a steep spur of rock, where they heard something
digging and shovelling.
[Illustration: A spade that stood digging and
delving]
“I wonder now,” said Boots, “what
is digging and shovelling up yonder at the top of
the rock.”
“Ah, you’re always so clever with your
wondering,” laughed Peter and Paul again, “as
if you’d never heard a woodpecker hacking and
pecking at a hollow tree.”
“Well, well,” said Boots, “I just
think it would be fun to see what it really is.”
And so off he set to climb the rock, while the others
laughed and made fun of him. But he did not care
a bit for that; up he climbed, and when he got near
the top, what do you think he saw? Why, a spade
that stood there digging and delving.
“Good-day!” said Boots. “So
you stand here all alone, and dig and delve, do you?”
“Yes, that’s what I do,” said the
spade, “and that’s what I’ve done
these hundreds of years, waiting for you, Boots.”
