Now, Paul was to try his luck, but he fared just the
same; when he had hewn two or three strokes, they
began to see the oak grow, and so the King’s
men seized him too, bound him hand and foot, and put
him out on the island,
And now Boots was to try.
“You can save yourself the trouble, we’ll
bind you and send you off after your brothers just
as well first as last,” laughed the King’s
men.
“Well, I’d just like to try first,”
said Boots, and so he got leave. Then he took
his axe out of his wallet and fitted it to its haft.
“Hew away!” said he to his axe; and away
it hewed, making the chips fly, so that it wasn’t
long before down came the oak.
When that was done Boots pulled out his spade and
fitted it to its handle.
“Dig away!” said he to the spade; and
the spade began to dig and delve till the earth and
rock flew out in splinters, and he had the well soon
dug out, as you may believe.
And when he had got it as big and deep as he chose,
Boots took out his walnut and laid it in one corner
of the well, and pulled the plug of moss out.
“Trickle and run,” said Boots; and so
the water trickled and ran, till it gushed out of
the hole in a stream, and in a short time the well
was brimful.
Then Boots had felled the oak which shaded the King’s
palace, and dug a well that held water all the year
around, and so he got the princess and half the kingdom,
as the King had said. And it was lucky for Peter
and Paul that they were on the barren island, else
they had heard each day and hour how every one said:
“Well, after all, Boots did not wonder about
things for nothing.”
Once on a time there was an old widow who had one
son, and as she was feeble and weak, she asked her
son to go out to the storehouse and fetch meal for
cooking. But when he got outside the storehouse,
and was just going down the steps, there came the
North Wind, puffing and blowing, caught up the meal,
and away with it through the air. Then the lad
went back into the storehouse for more; but when he
came out again on the steps, the North Wind came again
and carried off the meal with a puff; and more than
that, he did it the third time. At this the lad
got very angry; and as it seemed hard that the North
Wind should behave so, he thought he would go in search
of him and ask him to give up his meal.
So off he went, but the way was long, and he walked
and walked. At last he came to the North Wind’s
house.
“Good-day!” said the lad, “and thank
you for coming to see us.”
“Good-day,” answered the North Wind, and
his voice was loud and gruff, “and thanks for
coming to see me. What do you want?”
“Oh,” answered the lad, “I only
wished to ask you to be so good as to let me have
back the meal you took from me on the storehouse steps,
for we haven’t much to live on; and if you’re
to go on snapping up the morsel we have, there’ll
be nothing for it but to starve.”
