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The Grateful Prince

"A king got lost in a forest. An old man offered to lead him out in exchange for the first thing that came out of the king's house. The king did not want to relinquish a dog, but he must needs get home and so was forced to agree; however, the first thing he possessed which emerged from the house upon his return was his infant son, in the arms of the nurse. To deceive the old man, he exchanged his own son for a peasant's daughter, raising the daughter as his princess. A year later, the stranger came and took the girl, but the king did not dare claim his son, for fear his duplicity would be revealed.

The king's son grew up as a peasant, but while his foster parents, being rewarded, were content, the prince himself had learned of the girl for whom he had been exchanged and was distraught he would become king at such a cost to herself. He took a sack of peas and went into the same forest in which his true father had been lost years before, and as previously, the same old man found him. The prince claimed to be carrying the peas for his aunt's funeral, to give to the watchers. The stranger offered to hire him, and the prince agreed. The stranger sang and spun like a top with pleasure, and never noticed the prince dropping peas along the way.

The stranger led him into a cave where there was a silent countryside, filled with silent animals. A sound like a troop of horses was identified by the stranger as the boiling kettle, and that sound which resembled the whirring of a saw-mill, as his grandmother's snoring. He had the prince hide in a kennel, because his grandmother could not stand new faces. The prince did not like that, but the old man did return to bring him inside, where he saw a beautiful woman.

The old man ate ravenously and told the woman to give him the scraps. He told the prince he could rest two days, and on the third he would put him to work, and forbade him to speak. The maid showed him a room; the prince guessed she was the girl exchanged for him. The next day he drew water and hewed wood for her; then he wandered the farmstead and saw the animals, including a black cow and a white-faced calf, and a white horse that occupied the stable alone.

The third day, the man set the prince to scythe enough grass for the horse and clean its stall. The maid told him, in whispers, to make a strong plait of the rushes and a peg, and threaten to bind its mouth and peg it so it could not eat or scatter its food. He obeyed, and the horse stopped eating and did not foul its stall.

Then the old man set him to milk the cow. The maid told him to heat a pair of tongs and threaten to use them if the cow did not give all her milk to him. The prince obeyed, and the old man was unable to get any more milk from the cow.

Then the old man set him to bring in a hay rick. The maid told him to tie the horse to the rick and count. He did so, and when the horse asked why, he said he was counting packs of wolves in the forest. The horse hauled the entire rick of hay back hastily, when it heard what the prince said.

Then the old man set him to bring a white-faced calf to the pasture, but the maid advised him to tie himself to the calf with a silk thread to ensure it could not escape from him.

Then the old man said he had no more work, but the prince must come to his bed and offer him his hand when he woke. The maid told him that the old man meant to eat him, but the prince must offer him a red-hot shovel instead of his own hand. The prince obeyed, and the old man refused to shake it.

Then the old man said he would marry the prince and the maid, and the maid said he had found her out. The prince cut off the calf's head at her direction and brought her a red ball from it. She brought a tiny ball of shining light and they fled. She told him that she had overheard that she was a king's daughter.

In the morning, the old man at first thought they were not eager to marry, but then he searched for them and realized they had fled. He sent a group of goblins from one stall in his barn after them. The ball moved in the maid's hands, and she had it change her into a brook and the prince into a fish. The goblins returned to the old man and said there had been nothing but a brook with a fish. The old man went to the next stall and sent the goblins there after them, instructing them to drink the brook and catch the fish. The maid turned herself into a rose tree and the prince into a rose. The goblins returned and said there had been nothing but a rose tree with one lone rose. The old man went to the next stall and sent his mightiest goblins after them, to tear up the rose tree. The prince and the maid were resting in the woods, and the maid turned herself into a breeze and the prince into a midge. Then, when the goblins were gone, she said the old man would know them even if they transmuted into any form; she rolled the ball and it led them to the door.

She said they must each go to their own home but the prince said they must keep together and marry. In the castle, the prince found that his father the king had died, confessing his switch of the maid and the prince. The prince mourned his beloved father but proclaimed what had happened, and all his people agreed that he should marry her and make her his queen."

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I'm Samantha Northern,pleased to meet you.x3

~dances~

~hums~

~amused~

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I'm Mrs.Northern,nice to meet you.n///n