middle of the floor ; on this chest sits a dog, and he 's got a pair of eyes
as big as two tea-cups. But you need not care for that. I '11 give you
my blue-checked apron, and you can spread it out upon the floor ; then
go up quickly and take the dog, and set him on my apron ; then open
the chest, and take as many shillings as you like. They are of copper :
if you prefer silver, you must go into the second chamber. But there
sits a dog with a pair of eyes as big as mill-wheels. But do not you
care for that. Set him upon my apron, and take some of the money.
And if you want gold, you can have that too in fact, as much as you
can carry if you go into the third chamber. But the dog that sits on
the money-chest there has two eyes as big as round towers. He is a
fierce dog, you may be sure ; but you needn't be afraid, for all that.
Only set him on my apron, and he won't hurt you ; and take out of the
chest as much gold as you like."
" That 's not so bad," said the soldier. " But what am I to give you,
you old witch ? for you will not do it for nothing, I fancy."
" No," replied the witch, " not a single shilling will I have. You shall
only bring me an old tinder-box which my grandmother forgot when she
was down there last."
" Then tie the rope round my body," cried the soldier.
THE \VITCH INDUCES THE SOLDIER TO CLIMB THE TREE.
"Here it is," said the witch, "and here's my blue-checked apron."
Then the soldier climbed up into the tree, let himself slip down into
the hole, and stood, as the witch had said, in the great hall where the
three hundred lamps were burning.
Now he opened the first door. Ugh ! there sat the dog with eyes as
big as tea-cups, staring at him. "You 're a nice fellow ! " exclaimed the
soldier ; and he set him on the witch's apron, and took as many copper
shillings as his pockets would hold, and then locked the chest, set the
dog on it again, and went into the second chamber. Aha ! there sat the
dog with eyes as big as mill-wheels.
"You should not stare so hard at me," said the soldier; "you might
strain your eyes." And he set the dog upon the witch's apron. And
when he saw the silver money in the chest, he threw away all the copper
money he had, and filled his pockets and his knapsack with silver only.
Then he went into the third chamber. Oh, but that was horrid ! The
e 2
20 Stories for the Household.
dog there really had eyes as big as towers, and they turned round and
round in his head like wheels.
" Good evening !" said the soldier; and he touched his cap, for he had
never seen such a dog as that before. When lie had looked at him a
little more closely, he thought, " That will do," and lifted him down to
the floor, and opened the chest. Mercy ! what a quantity of gold was
there! He could buy with it the whole town, and the sugar sucking-
pigs of the cake woman, and all the tin soldiers, whips, and rocking-
horses in the whole world. Tes, that was a quantity of money ! No\v
the soldier threw away all the silver coin with which he had filled his
pockets and his knapsack, and took gold instead : yes, all his pockets,
his knapsack, his boots, and his cap were filled, so that he could scarcely
walk. Now indeed he had plenty of money. He put the dog on the
chest, shut the door, and then called up through the tree, " Now pull
nie up, you old witch."
''Have you the tinder-bos. ?" asked the witch.
"Plague on it!" exclaimed the soldier, "I had clean forgotten that."
And he went and brought it.
The witch drew him up, and he stood on the high road again, with
pockets, boots, knapsack, and cap full of gold.
"What are you going to do with the tinder-box ?" asked the soldier.
" That 's nothing to you," retorted the witch. " You 've had your
money just give me the tinder-box."
" Nonsense !" said the soldier. " Tell me directly what you 're going
to do with it, or I '11 draw my sword and cut off your head."
" No ! " cried the witch.
So the soldier cut off her head. There she lay ! But he tied up all
his money in her apron, took it on his back like a bundle, put the
tinder-box in his pocket, and went straight off towards the town.
That was a splendid town ! And he put up at the very best inn, and
asked for the finest rooms, and ordered his favourite dishes, for now he
was rich, as he had so much money. The servant who had to clean his
boots certainly thought them a remarkably old pair for such a rich gen-
tleman ; but he had not bought any new ones yet. The next day he
procured proper boots and handsome clothes. Now our soldier had
become a fine gentleman ; and the people told him of all the splendid
things which were in their city, and about the king, and what a pretty
princess the king's daughter was.
" Where can one get to see her ?" asked the soldier.
" She is not to be seen at all," said they all together ; she lives in a
great copper castle, with a great many walls and towers round about it ;
no one but the king may go in and out there, for it has been prophesied
that she shall marry a common soldier, and the king can't bear that."
"I should like to see her," thought the soldier; but he could not get
leave tc do so. Now he lived merrily, Aveiit to the theatre, drove in the
king's garden, and gave much money to the poor ; and this was very
kind of him, for he knew from old times how hard it is when one has
not a shilling. Now he was rich, had fine clothes, and gained many
THE PRINCESS ARRIVES OX THE DOG'S BACK.
friends, who all said he was a rare one, a true cavalier ; and that pleased
the soldier well. But as he speut money every day and never earned
any, he had at last only two shillings left ; and he was obliged to turn
out of the fine rooms in which he had dwelt, and had to live in a little
garret under the roof, and clean his boots for himself, and mend them
with a darning-needle. None of his friends came to see him, for there
were too many stairs to climb.
It was quite dark one evening, and he could not even buy himself a
candle, when it occurred to him that there was a candle-end in the
tinder-box which he had taken out of the hollow tree into which the
witch had helped him. He brought out the tinder-box and the caudle-
end ; but as soon as he struck fire and the sparks rose up from the flint,
the door flew open, and the dog who had eyes as big as a couple of tea-
cups, and whom he had seen in the tree, stood before him, and said,
" What are my lord's commands ?"
" What is this ?" said the soldier. " That 's a famous tinder-box, if
22 Stories for the Household.
I can get everything with it that I want ! Bring me some money," said
he to the dog; and ivldsk ! the dog was gone, and wliisk ! he was back
jigaiu, with a great bag full of shillings in his mouth.
Now the soldier knew what a capital tinder-box this was. If he struck
it once, the dog came who sat upon the chest of copper money ; if he
struck it twice, the dog came who had the silver ; and if he struck it
three times, then appeared the dog who had the gold. Now the soldier
moved back into the fine rooms, and appeared again in handsome clothes;
and all his friends knew him again, and cared very much for him indeed.
Once he thought to himself, " It is a very strange thing that one
cannot get to see the princess. They all say she is very beautiful ; but
what is the use of that, if she has always to sit in the great copper castle
with the many towers ? Can I not get to see her at all ? Where is my
tinder-box ?" And so he struck a light, and u-Jiisk .' came the dog with
eyes as big as tea-cups.
" It is midnight, certainly," said the soldier, " but I should very much
like to see the princess, only for one little moment."
And the dog was outside the door directly, and, before the soldier
thought it, came back with the princess. She sat upon the dog's back
and slept ; and every one could see she was a real princess, for she was
so lovely. The soldier could not refrain from kissing her, for he was a
thorough soldier. Then the dog ran back again with the princess. But
when morning came, and the king and queen were drinking tea, the prin-
cess said she had had a strange dream the night before, about a dog and a
soldier that she had ridden upon the dog, and the soldier had kissed her.
" That would be a fine history !" said the Queen.
So one of the old court ladies had to watch the next night by the
princess's bed, to see if this was really a dream, or what it might be.
The soldier had a great longing to see the lovely princess again ; so
the dog came in the night, took her away, and ran as fast as he could.
But the old lady put on water-boots, and ran just as fast after him.
When she saw that they both entered a great house, she thought, "Now
I know where it is ;" and with a bit of chalk she drew a great cross on
the door. Then she went home and lay down, and the dog came up
with the princess ; but when he saw that there was a cross drawn on
the door where the soldier lived, he took a piece of chalk too, and drew
crosses on all the doors in the town. And that was cleverly done, for
no\v the lady could not find the right door, because all the doors had
crosses upon them.
In the morning early came the King and the Queen, the old court lady
and all the officers, to see where it was the princess had been. "Here
it is !" said the King, when he saw the first door with a cross upon it.
"No, my dear husband, it is there!" said the Queen, who descried
another door which also showed a cross. " But there is one, and there
is one!" said all, for wherever they looked there were crosses on the
doors. So they saw that it would avail them nothing if they searched on.
But the Queen was an exceedingly clever woman, who could do more
than ride in a coach. She took her great gold scissors, cut a piece of
The Tinder-Box. 23
silk iuto pieces, and m-ade a neat little bag ; this bag she filled with fine
wheat flour, and tied it on the princess's back ; and when that was done,
she cut a little hole in the bag, so that the flour would be scattered
along all the way which the princess should take.
In the night the dog came again, took the princess on his back, and
ran with her to the soldier, who loved her very much, and would gladly
have been a prince, so that he might have her for his wife. The dog did
not notice at all how the flour ran out in a stream from the castle to the
windows of the soldier's house, where he ran up the wall with the prin-
cess. In the morning the King and the Queen saw well enough where
their daughter had been, and they took the soldier and put him in prison.
There he sat. Oh, but it was dark and disagreeable there ! And they
said to him, " To-morrow you shall be hanged." That was not amusing
to hear, and he had left his tinder-box at the inn. In the morning he
could see, through the iron grating of the little window, how the people
were hurrying out of the town to see him hanged. He heard the drums
beat and saw the soldiers marching. All the people were running out,
and among them was a shoemaker's boy with leather apron and slippers,
and he gallopped so fast that one of his slippers flew off", and came right
against the wall where the soldier sat looking through the iron grating.
" Halloo, you shoemaker's boy! you needn't be in suchahurry," cried
the soldier to him : " it will not begin till I come. But if you will run
to where I lived, and bring me my tinder-box, you shall have four shil-
lings ; but you must put your best leg foremost."
The shoemaker's boy wanted to get the four shillings, so he went and
brought the tinder-box, and well, we shall hear now what happened.
Outside the town a great gallows had been built, and round it stood
the soldiers and many hundred thousand people. The king and queen
sat on a splendid throne, opposite to the judges and the whole council.
The soldier already stood upon the ladder ; but as they were about to
put the rope round his neck, he said that before a poor criminal suffered
his punishment an innocent request was always granted to him. He
wanted very much to smoke a pipe of tobacco, and it would be the last
pipe he should smoke in the world. The king would not say " Xo " to
this ; so the soldier took his tinder-box, and struck fire. One two
three ! and there suddenly stood all the dogs the one with eyes as big
as tea-cups, the one with eyes as large as mill-wheels, and the one whose
eyes were as big as round towers.
" Help me now, so that I may not be hanged," said the soldier.
And the dogs fell upon the judge and all the council, seized one by the
leg and another by the nose, and tossed them all many feet into the air,
so that they fell down and were all broken to pieces.
"I won't!" cried the King; but the biggest dog took him and the
Queen, and threw them after the others. Then the soldiers were afraid,
and the people cried, " Little soldier, you shall be our king, and marry
the beautiful princess ! "
So they put the soldier into the king's coach, and all the three dogs
darted on in front and cried " Hurrah !" and the boys whistled through
24 Stories for the Household.
their fingers, and the soldiers presented arms. The princess came out
of the copper castle, and became queen, and she liked that well enough.
The wedding lasted a week, and the three dogs sat at the table too, and
opened their eves wider than ever at all they saw.
GREAT GLAUS AND LITTLE GLAUS.
TIIEBE lived two men in one village, and they had the same name
each was called Claus ; but one had four horses, and the other only a
single horse. To distinguish them from each other, folks called him who
had four horses Great Claus, and the one who had only a single horse
Little Claus. Now we shall hear what happened to each of them, for
this is a true story.
The whole week through Little Claus was obliged to plough for Great
Claus, and to lend him his one horse ; then Great Claus helped him out
with all his four, but only once a week, and that on a holiday. Hurrah!
how Little Claus smacked his whip over all five horses, for they were as
good as his own on that one day. The sun shone gaily, and all the bells
in the steeples were ringing ; the people were all dressed in their best,
and were going to church, with their hymn-books under their arms, to
hear the clergyman preach, and they saw Little Claus ploughing with
five horses ; but he was so merry that he smacked his whip again and
again, and cried, " Gee up, all my five!"
" You must not talk so," said Great Claus, " for only the one horse is
yours."
But when no one was passing Little Claus forgot that he was not to
say this, and he cried, " Gee up, all my horses !"
" Now, I must beg of you to let that alone," cried Great Claus, " for
if you say it again, I shall hit your horse on the head, so that it will fall
down dead, and then it will be all over with him."
" I will certainly not say it any more," said Little Claus.
But when people came by soon afterwards, and nodded "good day"
to him, he became very glad, and thought it looked very well, after all,
that he had five horses to plough his field ; and so he smacked his whip
again, and cried, " Gee up, all my horses !"
"I'll 'gee up' your horses!" said Great Claus. And he took the
hatchet and hit the only horse of Little Claus on the head, so that it fell
down, and was dead immediately.
" Oh, now I haven't any horse at all !" said Little Claus, and began
to cry.
Then he flayed the horse, and let the hide dry in the wind, and put it
in a sack and hung it over his shoulder, and went to the town to sell
his horse's skin.
He had a very long way to go, and was obliged to pass through a great
dark wood, and the weather became dreadfully bad. He went quite
....
LITTLif CLAUS DEPLORING THE DEATH OF HIS HOESE.
astray, and before he got into the right way again it was evening, and it
was too far to get home again or even to the town before nightfall.
Close by the road stood a large farm-house. The shutters were closed
outside the windows, but the light could still be seen shining out over
them.
" I may be able to get leave to stop here through the night," thought
Little Clans ; and he went and knocked.
The farmer's wife opened the door ; but when she heard what he
wanted she told him to go away, declaring that her husband was net at
home, and she would not receive strangers.
''Then I shall have to lie outside," said Little Claus. And the
farmer's wife shut the door in his face.
Close by stood a great haystack, and between this and the farm-house
was a little outhouse thatched with straw.
"Up there "[ can lie," said Little Claus, when he looked up at the
26 Stories for the Household.
roof; "that is a capital bed. I suppose the stork won't fly down and
bite me in the legs." For a living stork was standing on the roof, where
he had his nest.
Now little Clans climbed up to the roof of the shed, where he lay, and
turned round to settle himself comfortably. The wooden shutters did
not cover the windows at the top, and he could look straight into the
room. There was a great table, with, the cloth laid, and wine and roast
meat and a glorious fish upon it. The farmer's wife and the clerk were
seated at table, and nobody besides. She was filling his glass, and he
was digging his fork into the fish, for that was his favourite dish.
" If one could only get some too ! " thought Little Claus, as he
stretched out his head towards the window. Heavens ! what a glorious
cake he saw standing there ! Tes, certainly, that ivas a feast.
Now he heard some one riding along the high road. It was the
woman's husband, who was coming home. He was a good man enough,
but he had the strange peculiarity that he could never bear to see a
clerk. If a clerk appeared before his eyes he became quite wild. And
that was the reason why the clerk had gone to the wife to wish her good
day, because he knew that her husband was not at home ; and the good
woman therefore put the best fare she had before him. But when they
heard the man coming they were frightened, and the woman begged the
clerk to creep into a great empty chest which stood there ; and he did
so, for he knew the husband could not bear the sight of a clerk. The
woman quickly hid all the excellent meat and wine in her baking-oven ;
for if the man had seen that, he would have been certain to ask what it
meant.
"Ah, yes!" sighed Little Claus, up in his shed, when he saw all the
good fare put away.
" Is there any one up there ?" asked the farmer ; and he looked up at
Little Claus. " Who are you lying there ? Better come with me into
the room."
And Little Claus told him how he had lost his way, and asked leave
to stay there for the night.
"Tes, certainly," said the peasant, " but first we must have something
to live on."
The woman received them both in a very friendly way, spread the
cloth on a long table, and gave them a great dish of porridge. The
farmer was hungry, and ate with a good appetite; but Little Claus could
not help thinking of the capital roast meat, fish, and cake, which he
knew were in the oven. Under the table, at his feet, he had laid the
sack with the horse's hide in it ; for we know that he had come out to
sell it in the town. He could not relish the porridge, so he trod upon
the sack, and the dry skin inside crackled quite loudly.
" Why, what have you in your sack ?" asked the farmer.
" Oh, that 's a magician," answered Little Claus. " He says we are
not to eat porridge, for he has conjured the oven full of roast meat, fish,
and cake."
Wonderful !" cried the farmer ; and he opened the oven in a hurry,
Greed Clans and Little Claus. 27
and found all the dainty provisions which his wife had hidden there, but
which, as he thought, the wizard had conjured forth. The woman dared
not say anything, but put the things at once on the table ; and so they
both ate of the meat, the fish, and the cake. Now Little Claus again
trod on his sack, and made the hide creak.
" What does he say now ? " said the farmer.
" He says," replied Claus, " that he has conjured three bottles of wine
for us, too, and that they are standing there in the corner behind the oven."
Now the woman was obliged to bring out the wine which she had
hidden, and the farmer drank it and became very merry. He would
have been very glad to see such a conjuror as Little Claus had there in
the sack.
"Can he conjure the demon forth?" asked the farmer. "I should
like to see him, for now I am merry."
" Oh, yes," said Little Claus, "niy conjuror can do anything that I
ask of him. Can you not ?" lie added, and trod on the hide, so that it
crackled. " He says ' Yes.' But the demon is very ugly to look at : we
had better not see him."
" Oh, I 'm not at all afraid. Pray, what will he look like ? "
" Why, he '11 look the very image of a clerk."
" Ha ! " said the farmer, " that is ugly ! You must know, I can't bear
the sight of a clerk. But it doesn't matter now, for I know that he 's a
demon, so I shall easily stand it. Now I have courage, but he must not
come too near nie."
" Now I will ask my conjuror," said Little Claus ; and he trod on the
sack and held his ear down.
"What does he say?"
" He says you may go and open the chest that stands in the corner,
and you will see the demon crouching in it ; but you must hold the lid
so that he doesn't slip out."
" Will you help me to hold him ?" asked the farmer. And he went to
the chest where the wife had hidden the real clerk, who sat in there and
was very much afraid. The farmer opened the lid a little way and
peeped in underneath it.
"Hu!" he cried, and sprang backward. "Yes, now I've seen him,
and he looked exactly like our clerk. Oh, that was dreadful !"
Upon this they must drink. So they sat and drank until late into
the night.
"You must sell me that conjuror," said the farmer. "Ask as much
as you like for him : I '11 give you a whole bushel of money directly."
" No, that I can't do," said Little Claus : " only think how much use
I can make of this conjuror."
" Oh, I should so much like to have him!" cried the farmer ; and he
went on begging.
" Well," said Little Claus, at last, " as you have been so kind as to
give me shelter for the night, I will let it be so. You shall have the con-
juror for a bushel of money; but I must have the bushel heaped up."
" That you shall have," replied the farmer. " But you must take the
28 Stories for the Household.
chest yonder away with you. I will not keep it in my house an hour.
One cannot know, perhaps he may be there still."
Little Glaus gave the farmer his sack with the dry hide in it, and got
in exchange a whole bushel of money, and that heaped up. The farmer
also gave him a big truck, on which to carry off his money and chest.
" Farewell ! " aaid Little Clans ; and he went off with his money and
the big chest, in which the clerk was still sitting.
On the other side of the wood was a great deep river. The water
rushed along so rapidly that one could scarcely swim against the stream.
A fine new bridge had been built over it. Little Glaus stopped on the
centre of the bridge, and said quite loud, so that the clerk could hear it,
"IIo, what shall I do with this stupid chest? It's as heavy as if
stones were in it. I shall only get tired if I drag it any farther, so I '11
throw it into the river : if it swims home to me, well and good ; and if
it does not, it will be no great matter."
And he took the chest with one hand, and lifted it up a little, as if he
intended to throw it into the river.
"No! let be!" cried the clerk from within the chest; "let me out
first ! "
" Hu !" exclaimed Little Glaus, pretending to be frightened, " he's in
there still ! I must make hasle and throw him into the river, that he
may be drowned."
' Oh, no, no !" screamed the clerk. " I '11 give, you a whole bushel-full
of money if you'll let me go."
" Why, that 's another thing !" said Little Glaus ; and he opened the
chest.
The clerk crept quickly out, pushed the empty chest into the water,
and went to his house, where Little Glaus received a whole bushel-full
of money. He had already received one from the farmer, and so now he
had his truck loaded with money.
" See, I 've been well paid for the horse," he said to himself when he
had got home to his own room, and was emptying all the money into
a heap in the middle of the floor. " That will vex Great Glaus when he
hears how rich I have grown through my one horse ; but I won't tell
him about it outright."
So he sent a boy to Great Glaus to ask for a bushel measure.
" What can he want with it ?" thought Great Glaus. And he smeared
some tar underneath the measure, so that some part of whatever was