The Junior Classics, Volume 1: Fairy and wonder tales
General
The Junior Classics, Volume 1: Fairy and wonder tales
Children's literature
The third night he sat down again on his bench and said quite sadly:
“If I could but shudder.” When it grew late, six tall men came in and
brought a coffin. Then said he: “Ha, ha, that is certainly my little
cousin, who only died a few days ago,” and he beckoned with his finger,
and cried: “Come, little cousin, come.” They placed the coffin on the
ground, but he went to it and took the lid off, and a dead man lay
therein. He felt his face, but it was cold as ice. “Stop,” said he, “I
will warm thee a, little,” and went to the fire and warmed his hand and
laid it on the dead man’s face, but he remained cold. Then he took him
out, and sat down by the fire and laid him on his breast and rubbed his
arms that the blood might circulate again. As this also did no good, he
thought to himself: “When two people lie in bed together, they warm
each other,” and carried him to bed, covered him over and lay down by
him. After a short time the dead man became warm too, and began to
move. Then said the youth: “See, little cousin, have I not warmed
thee?” The dead man, however, got up and cried, “Now will I strangle
thee.”
“What!” said he, “is that the way thou thankest me? Thou shalt at once
go into thy coffin again,” and he took him up, threw him into it, and
shut the lid.
Then came the six men and carried him away again. “I cannot manage to
shudder,” said he. “I shall never learn it here as long as I live.”
Then a man entered who was taller than all others, and looked terrible.
He was old, however, and had a long white beard. “Thou wretch,” cried
he, “thou shalt soon learn what it is to shudder, for thou shalt die.”
“Not so fast,” replied the youth, “If I am to die, I shall have to have
a say in it.” “I will soon seize thee,” said the fiend. “Softly,
softly, do not talk so big. I am as strong as thou art, and perhaps
even stronger.” “We shall see,” said the old man. “If thou art
stronger, I will let thee go—come, we will try.” Then he led him by
dark passages to a smith’s forge, took an ax, and with one blow struck
an anvil into the ground. “I can do that better still,” said the youth,
and went to the other anvil. The old man placed himself near and wanted
to look on, and his white heard hung down. Then the youth seized the
ax, split the anvil with one blow, and struck the old man’s beard in
with it. “Now I have thee,” said the youth. “Now it is thou who wilt
have to die.” Then he seized an iron bar and beat the old man till he
moaned and entreated him to stop, and he would give him great riches.
The youth drew out the ax and let him go. The old man led him back into
the castle, and in a cellar showed him three chests full of gold. “Of
these,” said he, “one part is for the poor, the other is for the king,
the third is thine.” In the meantime it struck twelve, and the spirit
disappeared; the youth, therefore, was left in darkness. “I shall still
be able to find my way out,” said he, and felt about, found the way
into the room, and slept there by his fire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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