Once there was a poor man with just one son, and that son was too lazy and stupid to do anything useful.
'Unless I want to feed this big lump for the rest of my life, I'm going to have to send him someplace far away where nobody knows him,' thought his father. 'When he's seen a bit of the world, he won't feel like coming back here anyway.'
So he led his son out far and wide in the world, and offered him around as a servant, but nobody wanted him. Finally, after a long spell of wandering, they met a rich farmer who had the reputation of turning every penny over seven times before letting it out of his hand. He decided to hire the boy, on the condition that he work three years without pay. At the end of the three years the master would go into town two mornings in a row and purchase the first thing he saw. On the third morning the boy himself would go out and do the same, and the three items would be his reward.
The boy served out his time and did a better job than anybody could have hoped. He wasn't exactly a model servant; but then his master wasn't the best either – he let the boy run around the whole three years in the same old clothes, until they were just one patch on top of another.
Finally the three years were up, and the master got up first thing in the morning to go on his shopping errand. 'You only see the expensive wares later in the day,' he told himself. 'They won't be displayed this early. All the same, this could cost me dearly, since it's all up to chance what I find.'
The first thing he saw was an old woman carrying a basket with a lid.
'Good day, Mother,' said the man.
'Good day to you too, Father,' said the old woman.
'What do you have in your basket there?' said the man.
'Do you really want to know?' asked the woman.
'Yes,' said the man, 'because I have to buy the first thing that comes across my path today.'
'Well, if you really want to know, you'll have to buy it!' said the old woman.
'How much does it cost?' asked the man.
She said she wanted four pennies for it. This didn't seem an unreasonable price, so he said he would take it, and then he opened the lid of the basket. Inside lay a young puppy.
When the man returned from his trip, the boy was waiting eagerly to see the reward for his first year of service. 'You're back already, Master?' he said to the man. 'What did you buy?'
'Well, it's nothing so special,' the man replied. 'I don't even know if I should show it to you. But I bought the first thing I saw, and it turned out to be this puppy.'
'Oh, thank you so much!' the boy exclaimed. 'I've always liked dogs.'
The next morning went no better. The man was up at the crack of dawn, and had not even reached the town when he met up again with the old woman and her basket.
'Good day, Mother,' he said.
'Good day to you too, Father,' the old woman replied.
'What do you have in your basket today?,' asked the farmer.
'f you want to know so badly, you'll have to buy it and see,' was her answer.
'How much does it cost?' asked the farmer.
She wanted four pennies for it – she only seemed to have the one price.
The man said he would take it, for he was sure to get a better bargain this time. He lifted the lid of the basket, and this time there was a little kitten in it.
When he got home, the boy was standing around waiting again, impatient to know his reward for the second year. 'Back already, Master?' he said. What did you buy today?'
'Ah – nothing better than yesterday, I'm afraid,' answered the farmer, "but I stuck to our bargain. I bought the first thing that came my way. I'm afraid it was just this kitten here'
'You couldn't have done better,' said the boy. 'I like cats even better than I do dogs.'
'Well, I'm getting off easy,' the man thought, 'but who knows what the boy will find tomorrow. That could be a whole different story.'
So on the third morning the lad went out himself, and just as he was coming into town, he ran into the same old woman with the basket over her arm.
'Good morning, Mother,' he said.
'Good morning to you to, my boy,' said the old lady.
'What do you have in your basket?' asked the boy.
'If you want to know, you'll have to buy it,' was her reply.
'Do you want to sell it to me?' asked the boy.
Of course she wanted to sell it, and the price was four pennies.
That sounded like a good bargain to the lad, and anyway he was supposed to buy the first thing that crossed his path.
'Now you can take the whole thing,' said the old woman, 'basket and all. But don't look inside until you get home, you hear?'
No, he promised he wouldn't look. But on the way home he got to thinking and wondering what might be inside, and quite against his will he found he himself opening the lid just a crack to take a peek. Just then, a tiny lizard sprang out through the crack and raced across the street – and then the basket was empty.
'Hey, wait a minute, and don't go running off – I bought you!' cried the boy.
'Stab me in the neck, stab me in the neck,' the lizard called.
The boy ran right behind the lizard and stabbed it in the neck with his knife, just as it was about to disappear into a hole in a wall. At the same moment, the lizard turned into a young man, handsome and princely – and indeed he was a prince in reality.
'You have released me,' said the prince. 'The old woman you and the farmer were dealing with is a witch, who turned me into a lizard and my brother and sister into a dog and a cat.'
This seemed a remarkable story to the boy.
'Yes,' said the prince, 'and she was just on her way to throw us into the sea, but if someone were to come and buy us, she had to sell us for four pennies – that was the deal. Now you have to come home with me. My father will want to reward you for saving my life.'
'But your home must be far, far away,' said the boy.
'Oh, no, it's not so very far', the prince answered, 'just over there', and he gestured toward a high mountain in the distance.
So they set off walking, as fast as they could, but it turned out to be farther than it looked, and it was late at night when they reached their goal. The prince knocked on the door, and a voice answered from inside the mountain, so powerful it made the earth shake: 'Who's out there knocking on my door and disturbing my sleep?'
'Open up, Father,' the prince called. 'Your son is home again.'
Joyfully, the father threw open the door. 'I was sure you were lying at the bottom of the sea,' said the old man. 'But you're not alone?'
'This is the boy who saved me,' said the prince. 'I asked him to come along, so that you can give him a reward.'
The old man promised to do that. 'But first, come inside,' he said. 'You'll be needing to rest.'
They went in and sat down, and the old man laid an armful of wood on the fire, which blazed up to reveal splendor in every corner of the room. The boy had never seen anything like it, nor tasted food and drink as fine as the meal the old man set before him. Even the cups and bowls and plates were made of purest gold and silver. The young men lacked for nothing. They ate and drank and took their ease, and when they went to bed they slept until late next morning.
The boy was not quite awake when the old man came into his room with a morning drink in a golden cup. When he had put on his old, threadbare clothes and eaten his breakfast, the king led him around and showed him everything, and told him to pick whatever he wanted as reward for saving the prince's life. As you can imagine, there was a wealth of treasures to choose among.
'Now, what would you like?' the king asked him. 'You may have anything you wish!'
The boy said he wanted to think it over and talk to the prince, and the king agreed that would be all right.
'So, you've seen a lot of beautiful things,' said the prince.
'Oh, yes, everything is magnificen,'" the boy replied. 'But you must help me decide what to choose. Your father said I might have anything I want.'
'You shouldn't take any of the things you've seen,' answered the prince. 'But my father wears a ring on his little finger. That's what you should ask for.'
So the boy did.
'This ring is the most precious thing I own,'said the king, 'But my son is just as dear to me, so I will give you the ring. Do you know about its magic powers?'
No, the boy had no idea.
'When you have the ring on your finger, you can have anything you want, just by wishing for it,' said the king.
The boy thanked the king, and the king and the prince wished him a safe journey, and warned him to take good care of the ring.
After travelling for awhile, the boy thought he should find out what the ring could do. He wished new clothes for himself, from top to toe, and no sooner had he made the wish than he found himself wearing them, and looking bright and handsome as a shiny new penny. Then he thought to himself that it would be fun to play a trick on his father. 'After all, he wasn't very nice to me when I was living at home.' So he wished himself, clad in the same old rags, onto his father's front doorstep, and in an instant he was there.
'Good day, Father. I wanted to drop by and thank you for all you did for me,' said the boy.
But when his father saw that he had come home looking even shabbier than before, he became angry and began to insult the lad. 'What am I going to do with you? Three long years you've been working, and haven't even earned a new set of clothes to put on your back!'
'Now don't be angry, Father,' said the boy. 'Just because I'm dressed in rags, it doesn't mean I'm a tramp. In fact, I want you to hurry off to the king and ask him to give me his daughter's hand in marriage.'
'Go on, now you're mocking me,' the father cried.
But the boy insisted, and seizing a stout stick, he chased his father all the way to the king's front gate. Tears pouring down his face, the old man stumbled into the king's presence.
'Now, now, what has happened to you, my good man?' asked the king. 'If someone has done you an injustice I will see it's put right.'
No, it was nothing like that, the man said, but he was so worried about his son; the boy couldn't seem to make his way in the world, and now he seemed to have lost his senses completely. 'For he has just chased me to your Majesty's door, and threatened me if I didn't get him the princess, to be his wife.'
'Calm yourself, good man,' said the king, 'and send your son to me. Then we shall see what to do.'
The boy burst into the room in such a storm that his rags seemed to fly about him.'Do I get your daughter?' he cried.
'Well, let's talk about it,' the king answered. 'It might be that you wouldn't even like her, or she you.'
The boy allowed that this might be the case.
Now, shortly before, a big foreign ship had docked in the harbor, and was visible from the castle window.
'Let's see,' said the king. 'If can you make me a ship in one or two hours, exactly like that one outside, then I will give you my daughter.'
'Is that all?' said the boy. Then he went down to the shore and sat in the sand, and when he had sat there long enough, he wished for a ship, fully rigged with masts and sails, just like the one already lying in the fjord. And there it was! When the king saw that instead of one ship there were suddenly two, he came down to the shore for a better look. There was the boy, wielding a broom as if giving the new ship a few final touches. Seeing the king, he tossed the broom away and called out, 'Here's your ship. Now can I have your daughter?'
'It's very nice,' the king replied, 'but I have another test for you now. If you can build a castle like mine, exactly the same in every detail, and that in one or two hours – well, then we shall see.'
'Is that all?' said the boy. He wandered around until the time agreed on, and then he wished for a castle just like the king's, and sure enough, it appeared at once. Pretty soon the king and queen and the princess came to examine it. Again the boy was standing there with his broom, sweeping and cleaning. 'The castle is ready. NOW do I get your daughter?' he demanded.
'It's very nice,' said the king. 'Come inside, and we'll talk it over.' He was beginning to notice that this boy could do more than just eat bread.
The king led the way, followed by the queen and the princess, with the boy bringing up the rear. Immediately he wished to be the handsomest young man in the world, and so he was.
When the princess saw how grand he had become all of a sudden, she nudged the queen, who in turn nudged the king, and when they had finished gawking it occurred to them that perhaps there was more to this boy than his ragged clothes had led them to believe. So they made a plan among themselves, that the princess would flirt with the boy and try to find out his secret.
The princess was as sweet to him as sugar candy, and flattered and teased him, and told him she couldn't stop thinking about him day or night. Finally she said, "Since we are going to be married, we shouldn't have any secrets from each other. I know you will want to tell me how you got all these beautiful things.'
'Oh, yes,' said the boy, 'I‘ll tell you as soon as we are man and wife, but not before.'
The next evening the princess pretended to be miserable. She said she could tell he didn't love her. If her refused her this one little thing, how was it going to be after the wedding? Maybe they shouldn't get married at all.
Of course the boy grew desperate, and in the end he wound up telling her everything. The clever girl ran straight the king and queen to share the news, and together they thought up a trick to get the ring away from the boy. After that, they told her, it shouldn't be difficult to get rid of him.
That evening the princess came to the boy's room with a hot drink– a sleeping mixture. She claimed it was a love potion she had made, since he didn't seem to care for her very much. Unsuspecting, the boy drank it right down and fell into a sleep so deep, the house could have fallen down around his ears without waking him. Then the princess stole the ring from his finger, put it on her own, and wished the boy onto the garbage heap in back of the castle, as ragged and dirty as when he arrived. In his place she wished herself the most magnificent prince in the world, and he appeared in the wink of an eye.
After a while the boy woke up outside, and thought at first he must be dreaming. But when he realized the ring had disappeared, he understood what had happened and was seized with such desperation he wanted to throw himself into the sea.
But suddenly he met a cat – the very cat his master had bought for him. 'Where are you going?' she asked him.
'To the sea, to drown myself,' he replied.
'Don't do that,' said the cat. 'I'll help you get your ring back.'
'Well, in that case....' the boy hesitated.
The cat took off at a run. Suddenly, spying a rat, she pounced and cried, 'I've got you!'
'Oh, please let me go,' begged the rat. 'I'll help you get the ring back.'
'Well, in that case....' said the cat.
When the people in the castle had gone to sleep, the rat sneaked around and sniffed out where the princess and the prince were lodged. Finally he found small hole to crawl through, and was able to listen to them talking. He noticed that the prince was wearing the ring on his finger because he heard the princess say, 'Be careful of the ring, my love.'
'Oh, nobody's going to come through these thick walls just on account of the ring,' the prince answered. 'But if you think it isn't safe enough on my hand, I can keep it in my mouth.'
After awhile he lay down on his back to go to sleep. But the ring slipped down into his throat, making him cough so hard that it fell out and rolled onto the floor. Whoosh! – the rat grabbed it and slipped out to bring it to the cat, who was waiting by the rat hole.
Meanwhile, the king had captured the boy, locked him in a tall tower, and condemned him to death for treating his daughter with contempt – at least that was the reason he gave. The boy was supposed to remain in the tower until his execution.
The cat was creeping around the tower, looking for a way to get in with the ring, when suddenly an eagle flew down, seized the cat in its talons and flew with her out over the sea. Then a falcon appeared and grabbed the eagle, who let the cat fall into the sea. When she hit the water, the cat was seized with such a panic that she let the ring drop, and swam frantically to land. She had barely shaken the water out of her fur when she met the dog the farmer had bought for the boy.
'Whatever shall I do now?' said the cat, weeping miserably. 'The ring is gone and they want to kill the boy.'
'I don't know,'said the dog. 'All I know is that I have a tearing, burning feeling in my stomach. I feel so sick.
'But you must have gone and eaten too much,' said the cat.
'I never eat more than I need,' said the dog, 'and all I had now was a dead fish the tide brought in.'
'Do you think the fish might have swallowed the ring?' asked the cat. 'And now you have to pay with your life because you can't digest gold!'
'That must be what happened,' said the dog. 'It would be better if I died right away. Maybe that way the boy could still be rescued.'
'No, no, that isn't necessary,' said the rat, who had been listening. 'I only need a tiny opening to get in, and if the ring is really inside you, I will retrieve it.'
So the rat slipped inside the dog, and came out again before long with the ring in his mouth. Then the cat took off for the tower, scrambled up the side until she found a hole to stick her paw through, and shoved the ring through to the boy inside.
As soon as he had the ring on his finger again, he wished for the tower to cave in, and immediately afterwards he found himself standing in the castle doorway and berating the king and queen and the princess as if they were the lowliest pack of thieves.
Quickly, the king called his army together and ordered them to build the tower up again and catch the boy, alive or dead. But the boy just wished the entire army into the big swamp nearby, and a hard time they had getting out of it again – those that didn't remain stuck there for good. After that he picked right up where he had left off, insulting the royal family, and when he'd gotten everything off his chest, he wished them all into that same tower, to spend the rest of their lives as prisoners. Then he proclaimed himself the new ruler of the kingdom.
Finally the dog and cat were transformed, the dog into a prince and the cat into a beautiful princess. The boy took the princess as his bride, their wedding was long and festive, and they all lived happily ever after.
English translation by Paula Swepston ©
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