Snowdrop & Other Tales. Grimm Jacob

his grief and anxiety he went down into the courtyard and wondered how he should get out of his difficulty.

      A number of Ducks were lying peaceably together by a stream, stroking down their feathers with their bills, while they chattered gaily.

      The Servant stood still to listen to them. They were telling each other of their morning’s walks and experiences.

      Then one of them said somewhat fretfully: ‘I have something lying heavy on my stomach. In my haste I swallowed the Queen’s ring this morning.’

      The Servant quickly seized it by the neck, carried it off into the kitchen, and said to the Cook: ‘Here’s a fine fat Duck. You had better kill it at once.’

      ‘Yes, indeed,’ said the Cook, weighing it in her hand. ‘It has spared no pains in stuffing itself; it should have been roasted long ago.’

      So she killed it, and cut it open, and there, sure enough, was the Queen’s ring.

      The Servant had now no difficulty in proving his innocence, and the King, to make up for his injustice, gave the Servant leave to ask any favour he liked, and promised him the highest post about the Court which he might desire.

      The Servant, however, declined everything but a horse, and some money to travel with, as he wanted to wander about for a while, to see the world.

      His request being granted, he set off on his travels, and one day came to a pond, where he saw three Fishes caught among the reeds, and gasping for breath. Although it is said that fishes are dumb, he understood their complaint at perishing thus miserably. As he had a compassionate heart, he got off his horse and put the three captives back into the water. They wriggled in their joy, stretched up their heads above the water, and cried —

      ‘We will remember that you saved us, and reward you for it.’

      He rode on again, and after a time he seemed to hear a voice in the sand at his feet. He listened, and heard an Ant-King complain: ‘I wish these human beings and their animals would keep out of our way. A clumsy horse has just put his hoof down upon a number of my people in the most heartless way.’

      He turned his horse into a side path, and the Ant-King cried: ‘We will remember and reward you.’

      The road now ran through a forest, and he saw a pair of Ravens standing by their nest throwing out their young.

      ‘Away with you, you gallows birds,’ they were saying. ‘We can’t feed you any longer. You are old enough to look after yourselves.’

      The poor little nestlings lay on the ground, fluttering and flapping their wings, and crying: ‘We, poor helpless children, to feed ourselves, and we can’t even fly! We shall die of hunger, there is nothing else for it.’

      The good Youth dismounted, killed his horse with his sword, and left the carcase as food for the young Ravens. They hopped along to it, and cried: ‘We will remember and reward you.’

      Now he had to depend upon his own legs, and after going a long way he came to a large town.

      There was much noise and bustle in the streets, where a man on horseback was making a proclamation.

      ‘The King’s daughter seeks a husband, but any one who wishes to sue for her hand must accomplish a hard task; and if he does not bring it to a successful issue, he will forfeit his life.’