The Junior Classics, Volume 1: Fairy and wonder tales
General
The Junior Classics, Volume 1: Fairy and wonder tales
Children's literature
Then a man approached who heard this conversation which the youth was
holding with himself, and when they had walked a little further to
where they could see the gallows, the man said to him, “Look, there is
the tree where seven men have married the ropemaker’s daughter, and are
now learning how to fly. Sit down below it, and wait till night comes,
and thou wilt soon learn how to shudder.” “If that is all that is
wanted,” answered the youth, “it is easily done; but if I learn how to
shudder as quickly as that, thou shalt have my fifty thalers. Just come
back to me early in the morning.” Then the youth went to the gallows,
sat down below it, and waited till evening came. And as he was cold, he
lighted himself a fire, but at midnight the wind blew so sharp that in
spite of his fire he could not get warm. And as the wind knocked the
hanged men against each other, and they moved backward and forward, he
thought to himself: “Thou shiverest below by the fire, but how those up
above must freeze and suffer!” And as he felt pity for them, he raised
the ladder, and climbed up, unbound one of them after the other, and
brought down all seven. Then he stirred the fire, blew it, and set them
all round it to warm themselves. But they sat there and did not stir,
and the fire caught their clothes. So he said:
“Take care, or I will hang you up again.” The dead men, however, did
not hear, but were quite silent, and let their rags go on burning. On
this he grew angry, and said: “If you will not take care, I cannot help
you, I will not be burned with you, and he hung them up again each in
his turn.
Then he sat down by his fire and fell asleep, and next morning the man
came to him and wanted to have the fifty thalers, and said: “Well, dost
thou know how to shudder?” “No,” answered he, “how was I to get to
know? Those fellows up there did not open their mouths, and were so
stupid that they let the few old rags which they had on their bodies
get burned.” Then the man saw that he would not carry away the fifty
thalers that day, and went away saying:
“One of this kind has never come in my way before.”
The youth likewise went his way, and once more began to mutter to
himself: “Ah, if I could but shudder! Ah, if I could but shudder!” A
wagoner who was striding behind him heard that and asked: “Who art
thou?” “I don’t know,” answered the youth. Then the wagoner asked:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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