The King and the huntsmen saw the pretty creature, and started after
him, but they could not catch him, and when they thought that they
surely had him, away he sprang through the bushes and could not be
seen. When it was dark he ran to the cottage, knocked, and said, “My
little sister, let me in.” Then the door was opened for him, and he
jumped in, and rested himself the whole night through upon his soft
bed.
The next day the hunt went on afresh, and when the roebuck again heard
the bugle-horn, and the ho! ho! of the huntsmen, he had no peace, but
said, “Sister, let me out, I must be off.” His sister opened the door
for him, and said, “But you must be here again in the evening and say
your pass-word.”
When the King and his huntsmen again saw the young roebuck with the
golden collar, they all chased him, but he was too quick and nimble for
them. This went on for the whole day, but at last by the evening the
huntsmen had surrounded him, and one of them wounded him a little in
the foot, so that he limped and ran slowly. Then a hunter crept after
him to the cottage and heard how he said, “My little sister, let me
in,” and saw that the door was opened for him, and was shut again at
once. The huntsman took notice of it all, and went to the King and told
him what he had seen and heard. Then the King said, “To-morrow we will
hunt once more.”
The little sister, however, was dreadfully frightened when she saw that
her fawn was hurt. She washed the blood off him, laid herbs on the
wound, and said, “Go to your bed, dear roe, that you may get well
again.” But the wound was so slight that the roebuck, next morning, did
not feel it any more. And when he again heard the sport outside, he
said, “I cannot bear it, I must be there; they shall not find it so
easy to catch me.” The sister cried, and said, “This time they will
kill you, and here am I alone in the forest and forsaken by all the
world. I will not let you out.” “Then you will have me die of grief,”
answered the roe; “when I hear the bugle-horns I feel as if I must jump
out of my skin.” Then the sister could not do otherwise, but opened the
door for him with a heavy heart, and the roebuck, full of health and
joy, bounded into the forest.
When the King saw him, he said to his huntsmen, “Now chase him all day
long till night-fall, but take care that no one does him any harm.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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