“Oh, do ask Lucky Luck,” cried the brook, “why, though I am such a
clear, bright, rapid stream I never have a fish or any other living
creature in my waters.”
The prince said he would do so, and continued his journey.
When he got quite clear of the forest he walked on through a lovely
valley till he reached a little house thatched with rushes, and he went
in to rest for he was very tired.
Everything in the house was beautifully clean and tidy, and a cheerful
honest-looking old woman was sitting by the fire.
“Good-morning, mother,” said the prince.
“May Luck be with you, my son. What brings you into these parts?”
“I am looking for Lucky Luck,” replied the prince.
“Then you have come to the right place, my son, for I am his mother. He
is not at home just now, he is out digging in the vineyard. Do you go
too. Here are two spades. When you find him begin to dig, but don’t
speak a word to him. It is now eleven o’clock. When he sits down to eat
his dinner sit beside him and eat with him. After dinner he will
question you, and then tell him all your troubles freely. He will
answer whatever you may ask.”
With that she showed him the way, and the prince went and did just as
she had told him. After dinner they lay down to rest.
All of a sudden Lucky Luck began to speak and said: “Tell me, what sort
of man are you, for since you came here you have not spoken a word?”
“I am not dumb,” replied the young man, “but I am that unhappy prince
whose faithful servant has been turned to stone, and I want to know how
to help him.”
“And you do well, for he deserves everything. Go back, and when you get
home your wife will just have had a little boy. Take three drops of
blood from the child’s little finger, rub them on your servant’s wrists
with a blade of grass and he will return to life.”
“I have another thing to ask,” said the prince, when he had thanked
him. “In the forest near here is a fine stream but not a fish or other
living creature in it. Why is this?”
“Because no one has ever been drowned in the stream. But take care, in
crossing, to get as near the other side as you can before you say so,
or you may be the first victim yourself.”
“Another question, please, before I go. On my way here I lodged one
night in the house of three maidens. All were well-mannered,
hard-working, and pretty, and yet none has had a wooer. Why was this?”
“Because they always throw out their sweepings in the face of the sun.”
“And why is it that a miller, who has a large mill with all the best
machinery and gets plenty of corn to grind is so poor that he can
hardly live from day to day?”
“Because the miller keeps everything for himself, and does not give to
those who need it.”
The prince wrote down the answers to his questions, took a friendly
leave of Lucky Luck, and set off for home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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