His next brother was a schoolmaster, and had one long leg and one short leg, so that when he stood on the long leg he seemed a very tall man, and when he stood on the short leg he seemed but a dwarf, and he had always found that he could make folk laugh by quickly changing himself from a tall man to a mere dwarf. Moreover, he was a preacher, and he came out on the road in front of the Princess' window and preached like seven parsons and chanted like seven clerks; but it was all for naught, for after the first glance the Princess did not even look at him, though the King who stood near had to hold on to the pillars for laughing. So the schoolmaster also went home with a very sore back; and when the third brother, whose name was Taper Tom, because he sat in the ashes and made tapers out of fir, said he now would go and make the Princess laugh, the two older brothers turned to him in scorn, for how could he do what neither of them, the soldier and the schoolmaster, had quite failed to do? The Princess would not even look at him, he might be sure. But Taper Tom said that he would try. But when he came to the court he did not go before the King to say that he had come to make the Princess laugh. Many there were who were trying that each day, and there was hardly a well back in all the kingdom by now, and Taper Tom had no mind to have his own back cut, for they were cutting the stripes broader and rubbing the salt in harder every day. So Taper Tom went to the court and asked for work to do. They told him that there was no work to be done, but he said: "What, no work--even in the kitchen? I am sure that the cook needs some one to fetch and carry for her." "Well, now," said the lord high chamberlain, "that might perhaps be. You may go to the kitchen and see." So Taper Tom went to the kitchen and the cook gave him work fetching and carrying. And every day Taper Tom saw the men who came and went away with their backs sore. One morning he was sent to the stream to catch a fish, and he caught a nice, fat one. As he came back he met a woman leading a goose with golden feathers by a string tied around its neck. The old woman wanted a fish, so she asked Taper Tom if he would trade the fish for the golden goose. "For," she said, "it is a very strange goose. If you lead it about and anyone lays hands on it, and you say, 'Hang on, if you care to come with us,' he will have to hang on and go with the goose wherever you lead." "Then," said Taper Tom, "you may have my fish and I will take your goose." So the old woman took the fish, and Taper Tom took the end of the string in his hand, and the goose followed after. He had not gone far when he met a goody who looked longingly at the goose with the golden feathers, and at last she said to Taper Tom: "That is a very fine goose, and I would like to stroke it." "All right," said Taper Tom.