Tales of the Caravan, Inn, and PalaceHauff, Wilhelm
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Tales of the Caravan, Inn, and Palace
Hauff, Wilhelm
Short stories, German -- Translations into English
For a long time Little Muck stood there, motionless from terror. Now
was his fate decided. Now he must flee, or the old woman would surely
strike him dead. His journey was decided on at once; and as he took one
more look around to see if there were nothing among the effects of
Ahavzi that he could make use of on his march, his eye was caught by a
pair of large slippers. They were certainly not beautiful; but those he
had on would not stand another journey, and he was also attracted by
this pair on account of their size, for when he once had these on his
feet, everybody, he hoped, would see that he had "put away childish
things." He therefore quickly kicked off his own shoes and stepped into
the large slippers. A walking stick ornamented with a finely cut lion's
head, seemed to him to be standing too idly in the corner; so he took
that along also, and hastened to his own bed-room, where he threw on
his cloak, placed his father's turban on his head, stuck the poniard in
his sash, and left the house and city as speedily as his feet would
carry him.
Once free of the town, he ran on, from fear of the old woman, until he
was ready to drop with exhaustion. Never before had he run so fast;
indeed it seemed to him that some unseen force was hurrying him on so
that he could not stop. Finally he observed that his power must have
connection with the slippers, as these kept sliding along, and carried
him with them. He attempted all kinds of experiments to come to a
stand-still, but was unsuccessful; when as a last resort, he shouted at
himself, as one calls to horses: "Whoa! whoa! stop! whoa!" Thereupon
the slippers halted, and Muck threw himself down on the ground utterly
exhausted.
The slippers pleased him very much. He had, after all, acquired
something by his service, that would help him along in the world, on
his way to find his fortune. In spite of his joy, he fell asleep from
exhaustion--as the small body of little Muck had so heavy a head to
carry that it could not endure much fatigue. The little dog, that had
helped him to Ahavzi's slippers, appeared to him in a dream, and said
to him: "Dear Muck, you don't quite understand how to use those
slippers; you must know that by turning around three times on the heel
of your slipper, you can fly to any point you choose; and with this
walking-stick you can discover treasures, as wherever gold is buried it
will strike three times on the earth, and if silver, twice!" Such was
the dream of Little Muck.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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