‘Well,’ says the king to the elder of the two princes, ‘go up to the smith’s forge, take my best coaches, and bring home the bridegroom.’ He did not like doing this, he was so proud, but he could not refuse. When he came to the forge he saw the prince standing at the door, and beckoned him over to the coach. ‘Are you the fellow,’ says he, ‘that made these crowns?’ ‘Yes,’ says the other. ‘Then,’ says he, ‘maybe you’d give yourself a brushing, and get into that coach; the king wants to see you. I pity the princess.’ The young prince got into the carriage, and while they were on the way he opened the snuff-box, and out walked Seven Inches, and stood on his thigh. ‘Well,’ says he, ‘what trouble is on you now?’ ‘Master,’ says the other, ‘please let me go back to my forge, and let this carriage be filled with paving stones.’ No sooner said than done. The prince was sitting in his forge, and the horses wondered what was after happening to the carriage. When they came into the palace yard, the king himself opened the carriage door, for respect to his new son-in-law. As soon as he turned the handle, a shower of small stones fell on his powdered wig and his silk coat, and down he fell under them. There was great fright and some laughter, and the king, after he wiped the blood from his forehead, looked very cross at the eldest prince. ‘My lord,’ says he, ‘I’m very sorry for this accident, but I’m not to blame. I saw the young smith get into the carriage, and we never stopped a minute since.’ ‘It’s uncivil you were to him. Go,’ says he to the other prince, ‘and bring the young smith here, and be polite.’ ‘Never fear,’ says he. But there’s some people that couldn’t be good-natured if they tried, and not a bit civiller was the new messenger than the old, and when the king opened the carriage door a second time, it’s shower of mud that came down on him. ‘There’s no use,’ says he, ‘going on this way. The fox never got a better messenger than himself.’ So he changed his clothes, and washed himself, and out he set to the prince’s forge and asked him to sit along with himself. The prince begged to be allowed to sit in the other carriage, and when they were half-way he opened his snuff-box. ‘Master,’ says he, ‘I’d wish to be dressed now according to my rank.’ ‘You shall be that,’ says Seven Inches. ‘And now I’ll bid you farewell. Continue as good and kind as you always were; love your wife; and that’s all the advice I’ll give you.’ So Seven Inches vanished; and when the carriage door was opened in the yard, out walks the prince as fine as hands could make him, and the first thing he did was to run over to his bride and embrace her.