The Little Soldier

THE LITTLE SOLDIER

I

Once upon a time there was a little soldier who had just come back from

the war. He was a brave little fellow, but he had lost neither arms nor

legs in battle. Still, the fighting was ended and the army disbanded, so

he had to return to the village where he was born.

Now the soldier's name was really John, but for some reason or other his

friends always called him the Kinglet; why, no one ever knew, but so it

was.

As he had no father or mother to welcome him home, he did not hurry

himself, but went quietly along, his knapsack on his back and his sword

by his side, when suddenly one evening he was seized with a wish to

light his pipe. He felt for his match-box to strike a light, but to his

great disgust he found he had lost it.

He had only gone about a stone's throw after making this discovery when

he noticed a light shining through the trees. He went towards it, and

perceived before him an old castle, with the door standing open.

The little soldier entered the courtyard, and, peeping through a window,

saw a large fire blazing at the end of a low hall. He put his pipe in

his pocket and knocked gently, saying politely:

'Would you give me a light?'

But he got no answer.

After waiting for a moment John knocked again, this time more loudly.

There was still no reply.

He raised the latch and entered; the hall was empty.

The little soldier made straight for the fireplace, seized the tongs,

and was stooping down to look for a nice red hot coal with which to

light his pipe, when clic! something went, like a spring giving way, and

in the very midst of the flames an enormous serpent reared itself up

close to his face.

And what was more strange still, this serpent had the head of a woman.

At such an unexpected sight many men would have turned and run for their

lives; but the little soldier, though he was so small, had a true

soldier's heart. He only made one step backwards, and grasped the hilt

of his sword.

[Illustration]

'Don't unsheath it,' said the serpent. 'I have been waiting for you, as

it is you who must deliver me.'

'Who are you?'

'My name is Ludovine, and I am the daughter of the King of the Low

Countries. Deliver me, and I will marry you and make you happy for ever

after.'

Now, some people might not have liked the notion of being made happy by

a serpent with the head of a woman, but the Kinglet had no such fears.

And, besides, he felt the fascination of Ludovine's eyes, which looked

at him as a snake looks at a little bird. They were beautiful green

eyes, not round like those of a cat, but long and almond-shaped, and

they shone with a strange light, and the golden hair which floated round

them seemed all the brighter for their lustre. The face had the beauty

of an angel, though the body was only that of a serpent.

'What must I do?' asked the Kinglet.

'Open that door. You will find yourself in a gallery with a room at the

end just like this. Cross that, and you will see a closet, out of which

you must take a tunic, and bring it back to me.'

The little soldier boldly prepared to do as he was told. He crossed the

gallery in safety, but when he reached the room he saw by the light of

the stars eight hands on a level with his face, which threatened to

strike him. And, turn his eyes which way he would, he could discover no

bodies belonging to them.

He lowered his head and rushed forward amidst a storm of blows, which he

returned with his fists. When he got to the closet, he opened it, took

down the tunic, and brought it to the first room.

'Here it is,' he panted, rather out of breath.

'Clic!' once more the flames parted. Ludovine was a woman down to her

waist. She took the tunic and put it on.

It was a magnificent tunic of orange velvet, embroidered in pearls, but

the pearls were not so white as her own neck.

'That is not all,' she said. 'Go to the gallery, take the staircase

which is on the left, and in the second room on the first story you will

find another closet with my skirt. Bring this to me.'

The Kinglet did as he was told, but in entering the room he saw, instead

of merely hands, eight arms, each holding an enormous stick. He

instantly unsheathed his sword and cut his way through with such vigour

that he hardly received a scratch.

He brought back the skirt, which was made of silk as blue as the skies

of Spain.

'Here it is,' said John, as the serpent appeared. She was now a woman as

far as her knees.

'I only want my shoes and stockings now,' she said. 'Go and get them

from the closet which is on the second story.'

The little soldier departed, and found himself in the presence of eight

goblins armed with hammers, and flames darting from their eyes. This

time he stopped short at the threshold. 'My sword is no use,' he thought

to himself; 'these wretches will break it like glass, and if I can't

think of anything else, I am a dead man.' At this moment his eyes fell

on the door, which was made of oak, thick and heavy. He wrenched it off

its hinges and held it over his head, and then went straight at the

goblins, whom he crushed beneath it. After that he took the shoes and

stockings out of the closet and brought them to Ludovine, who, directly

she had put them on, became a woman all over.

When she was quite dressed in her white silk stockings and little blue

slippers dotted over with carbuncles, she said to her deliverer, 'Now

you must go away, and never come back here, whatever happens. Here is a

purse with two hundred ducats. Sleep to-night at the inn which is at the

edge of the wood, and awake early in the morning: for at nine o'clock I

shall pass the door, and shall take you up in my carriage.' 'Why

shouldn't we go now?' asked the little soldier. 'Because the time has

not yet come,' said the Princess. 'But first you may drink my health in

this glass of wine,' and as she spoke she filled a crystal goblet with a

liquid that looked like melted gold.

John drank, then lit his pipe and went out.

II

When he arrived at the inn he ordered supper, but no sooner had he sat

down to eat it than he felt that he was going sound asleep.

'I must be more tired than I thought,' he said to himself, and, after

telling them to be sure to wake him next morning at eight o'clock, he

went to bed.

All night long he slept like a dead man. At eight o'clock they came to

wake him, and at half-past, and a quarter of an hour later, but it was

no use; and at last they decided to leave him in peace.

The clocks were striking twelve when John awoke. He sprang out of bed,

and, scarcely waiting to dress himself, hastened to ask if anyone had

been to inquire for him.

'There came a lovely princess,' replied the landlady, 'in a coach of

gold. She left you this bouquet, and a message to say that she would

pass this way to-morrow morning at eight o'clock.'

The little soldier cursed his sleep, but tried to console himself by

looking at his bouquet, which was of immortelles.

'It is the flower of remembrance,' thought he, forgetting that it is

also the flower of the dead.

When the night came, he slept with one eye open, and jumped up twenty

times an hour. When the birds began to sing he could lie still no

longer, and climbed out of his window into the branches of one of the

great lime-trees that stood before the door. There he sat, dreamily

gazing at his bouquet till he ended by going fast asleep.

[Illustration]

Once asleep, nothing was able to wake him; neither the brightness of the

sun, nor the songs of the birds, nor the noise of Ludovine's golden

coach, nor the cries of the landlady who sought him in every place she

could think of.

As the clock struck twelve he woke, and his heart sank as he came down

out of his tree and saw them laying the table for dinner.

'Did the Princess come?' he asked.

'Yes, indeed, she did. She left this flower-coloured scarf for you; said

she would pass by to-morrow at seven o'clock, but it would be the last

time.'

'I must have been bewitched,' thought the little soldier. Then he took

the scarf, which had a strange kind of scent, and tied it round his left

arm, thinking all the while that the best way to keep awake was not to

go to bed at all. So he paid his bill, and bought a horse with the money

that remained, and when the evening came he mounted his horse and stood

in front of the inn door, determined to stay there all night.

Every now and then he stooped to smell the sweet perfume of the scarf

round his arm; and gradually he smelt it so often that at last his head

sank on to the horse's neck, and he and his horse snored in company.

When the Princess arrived, they shook him, and beat him, and screamed at

him, but it was all no good. Neither man nor horse woke till the coach

was seen vanishing away in the distance.

Then John put spurs to his horse, calling with all his might 'Stop!

stop!' But the coach drove on as before, and though the little soldier

rode after it for a day and a night, he never got one step nearer.

Thus they left many villages and towns behind them, till they came to

the sea itself. Here John thought that at last the coach must stop, but,

wonder of wonders! it went straight on, and rolled over the water as

easily as it had done over the land. John's horse, which had carried him

so well, sank down from fatigue, and the little soldier sat sadly on the

shore, watching the coach which was fast disappearing on the horizon.

III

However, he soon plucked up his spirits again, and walked along the

beach to try and find a boat in which he could sail after the Princess.

But no boat was there, and at last, tired and hungry, he sat down to

rest on the steps of a fisherman's hut.

In the hut was a young girl who was mending a net. She invited John to

come in, and set before him some wine and fried fish, and John ate and

drank and felt comforted, and he told his adventures to the little

fisher-girl. But though she was very pretty, with a skin as white as a

gull's breast, for which her neighbours gave her the name of the

Seagull, he did not think about her at all, for he was dreaming of the

green eyes of the Princess.

When he had finished his tale, she was filled with pity and said:

'Last week, when I was fishing, my net suddenly grew very heavy, and

when I drew it in I found a great copper vase, fastened with lead. I

brought it home and placed it on the fire. When the lead had melted a

little, I opened the vase with my knife and drew out a mantle of red

cloth and a purse containing fifty crowns. That is the mantle, covering

my bed, and I have kept the money for my marriage-portion. But take it

and go to the nearest seaport, where you will find a ship sailing for

the Low Countries, and when you become King you will bring me back my

fifty crowns.'

And the Kinglet answered: 'When I am King of the Low Countries, I will

make you lady-in-waiting to the Queen, for you are as good as you are

beautiful. So farewell,' said he, and as the Seagull went back to her

fishing he rolled himself in the mantle and threw himself down on a heap

of dried grass, thinking of the strange things that had befallen him,

till he suddenly exclaimed:

'Oh, how I wish I was in the capital of the Low Countries!'

IV

In one moment the little soldier found himself standing before a

splendid palace. He rubbed his eyes and pinched himself, and when he was

quite sure he was not dreaming he said to a man who was smoking his pipe

before the door, 'Where am I?'

'Where are you? Can't you see? Before the King's palace, of course.'

'What King?'

'Why the King of the Low Countries!' replied the man, laughing and

supposing that he was mad.

Was there ever anything so strange? But as John was an honest fellow, he

was troubled at the thought that the Seagull would think he had stolen

her mantle and purse. And he began to wonder how he could restore them

to her the soonest. Then he remembered that the mantle had some hidden

charm that enabled the bearer to transport himself at will from place to

place, and in order to make sure of this he wished himself in the best

inn of the town. In an instant he was there.

Enchanted with this discovery, he ordered supper, and as it was too late

to visit the King that night he went to bed.

The next day, when he got up, he saw that all the houses were wreathed

with flowers and covered with flags, and all the church bells were

ringing. The little soldier inquired the meaning of all this noise, and

was told that the Princess Ludovine, the King's beautiful daughter, had

been found, and was about to make her triumphal entry. 'That will just

suit me,' thought the Kinglet; 'I will stand at the door and see if she

knows me.'

He had scarcely time to dress himself when the golden coach of Ludovine

went by. She had a crown of gold upon her head, and the King and Queen

sat by her side. By accident her eyes fell upon the little soldier, and

she grew pale and turned away her head.

'Didn't she know me?' the little soldier asked himself, 'or was she

angry because I missed our meetings?' and he followed the crowd till he

got to the palace. When the royal party entered he told the guards that

it was he who had delivered the Princess, and wished to speak to the

King. But the more he talked the more they believed him mad and refused

to let him pass.

The little soldier was furious. He felt that he needed his pipe to calm

him, and he entered a tavern and ordered a pint of beer. 'It is this

miserable soldier's helmet,' said he to himself. 'If I had only money

enough I could look as splendid as the lords of the Court; but what is

the good of thinking of that when I have only the remains of the

Seagull's fifty crowns?'

He took out his purse to see what was left, and he found that there were

still fifty crowns.

'The Seagull must have miscounted,' thought he, and he paid for his

beer. Then he counted his money again, and there were still fifty

crowns. He took away five and counted a third time, but there were still

fifty. He emptied the purse altogether and then shut it; when he opened

it the fifty crowns were still there!

Then a plan came into his head, and he determined to go at once to the

Court tailor and coachbuilder.

He ordered the tailor to make him a mantle and vest of blue velvet

embroidered with pearls, and the coachbuilder to make him a golden coach

like the coach of the Princess Ludovine. If the tailor and the

coachbuilder were quick he promised to pay them double.

A few days later the little soldier was driven through the city in his

coach drawn by six white horses, and with four lacqueys richly dressed

standing behind. Inside sat John, clad in blue velvet, with a bouquet of

immortelles in his hand and a scarf bound round his arm. He drove twice

round the city, throwing money to the right and left, and the third

time, as he passed under the palace windows, he saw Ludovine lift a

corner of the curtain and peep out.

V

The next day no one talked of anything but the rich lord who had

distributed money as he drove along. The talk even reached the Court,

and the Queen, who was very curious, had a great desire to see the

wonderful Prince.

'Very well,' said the King; 'let him be asked to come and play cards

with me.'

This time the Kinglet was not late for his appointment.

The King sent for the cards and they sat down to play. They had six

games, and John always lost. The stake was fifty crowns, and each time

he emptied his purse, which was full the next instant.

[Illustration]

The sixth time the King exclaimed, 'It is amazing!'

The Queen cried, 'It is astonishing!'

The Princess said, 'It is bewildering!'

'Not so bewildering,' replied the little soldier, 'as your change into a

serpent.'

'Hush!' interrupted the King, who did not like the subject.

'I only spoke of it,' said John, 'because you see in me the man who

delivered the Princess from the goblins and whom she promised to

marry.'

'Is that true?' asked the King of the Princess.

'Quite true,' answered Ludovine. 'But I told my deliverer to be ready to

go with me when I passed by with my coach. I passed three times, but he

slept so soundly that no one could wake him.'

'What is your name?' said the King, 'and who are you?'

'My name is John. I am a soldier, and my father is a boatman.'

'You are not a fit husband for my daughter. Still, if you will give us

your purse, you shall have her for your wife.'

'My purse does not belong to me, and I cannot give it away.'

'But you can lend it to me till our wedding-day,' said the Princess with

one of those glances the little soldier never could resist.

'And when will that be?'

'At Easter,' said the monarch.

'Or in a blue moon!' murmured the Princess; but the Kinglet did not hear

her and let her take his purse.

Next evening he presented himself at the palace to play picquet with the

King and to make his court to the Princess. But he was told that the

King had gone into the country to receive his rents. He returned the

following day, and had the same answer. Then he asked to see the Queen,

but she had a headache. When this had happened five or six times, he

began to understand that they were making fun of him.

'That is not the way for a King to behave,' thought John. 'Old

scoundrel!' and then suddenly he remembered his red cloak.

'Ah, what an idiot I am!' said he. 'Of course I can get in whenever I

like with the help of this.'

That evening he was in front of the palace, wrapped in his red cloak.

On the first story one window was lighted, and John saw on the curtains

the shadow of the Princess.

'I wish myself in the room of the Princess Ludovine,' said he, and in a

second he was there.

The King's daughter was sitting before a table counting the money that

she emptied from the inexhaustible purse.

'Eight hundred and fifty, nine hundred, nine hundred and fifty----'

'A thousand,' finished John. 'Good evening everybody!'

The Princess jumped and gave a little cry. 'You here! What business

have you to do it? Leave at once, or I shall call----'

'I have come,' said the Kinglet, 'to remind you of your promise. The day

after to-morrow is Easter Day, and it is high time to think of our

marriage.'

Ludovine burst out into a fit of laughter. 'Our marriage! Have you

really been foolish enough to believe that the daughter of the King of

the Low Countries would ever marry the son of a boatman?'

'Then give me back the purse,' said John.

'Never,' said the Princess, and put it calmly in her pocket.

'As you like,' said the little soldier. 'He laughs best who laughs the

last;' and he took the Princess in his arms. 'I wish,' he cried, 'that

we were at the ends of the earth;' and in one second he was there, still

clasping the Princess tightly in his arms.

'Ouf,' said John, laying her gently at the foot of a tree. 'I never took

such a long journey before. What do you say, madam?' The Princess

understood that it was no time for jesting, and did not answer. Besides

she was still feeling giddy from her rapid flight, and had not yet

collected her senses.

VI

The King of the Low Countries was not a very scrupulous person, and his

daughter took after him. This was why she had been changed into a

serpent. It had been prophesied that she should be delivered by a little

soldier, and that she must marry him, unless he failed to appear at the

meeting-place three times running. The cunning Princess then laid her

plans accordingly.

The wine that she had given to John in the castle of the goblins, the

bouquet of immortelles, and the scarf, all had the power of producing

sleep like death. And we know how they had acted on John.

However, even in this critical moment, Ludovine did not lose her head.

'I thought you were simply a street vagabond,' said she, in her most

coaxing voice; 'and I find you are more powerful than any king. Here is

your purse. Have you got my scarf and my bouquet?'

'Here they are,' said the Kinglet, delighted with this change of tone,

and he drew them from his bosom. Ludovine fastened one in his

button-hole and the other round his arm. 'Now,' she said, 'you are my

lord and master, and I will marry you at your good pleasure.'

'You are kinder than I thought,' said John; 'and you shall never be

unhappy, for I love you.'

'Then, my little husband, tell me how you managed to carry me so quickly

to the ends of the world.'

The little soldier scratched his head. 'Does she really mean to marry

me,' he thought to himself, 'or is she only trying to deceive me again?'

But Ludovine repeated, 'Won't you tell me?' in such a tender voice he

did not know how to resist her.

'After all,' he said to himself, 'what does it matter telling her the

secret, as long as I don't give her the cloak.'

And he told her the virtue of the red mantle.

'Oh dear, how tired I am!' sighed Ludovine. 'Don't you think we had

better take a nap? And then we can talk over our plans.'

She stretched herself on the grass, and the Kinglet did the same. He

laid his head on his left arm, round which the scarf was tied, and was

soon fast asleep.

Ludovine was watching him out of one eye, and no sooner did she hear him

snore than she unfastened the mantle, drew it gently from under him and

wrapped it round her, took the purse from his pocket, and put it in

hers, and said: 'I wish I was back in my own room.' In another moment

she was there.

VII

Who felt foolish but John, when he awoke, twenty-four hours after, and

found himself without purse, without mantle, and without Princess? He

tore his hair, he beat his breast, he trampled on the bouquet, and tore

the scarf of the traitress to atoms.

Besides this he was very hungry, and he had nothing to eat.

He thought of all the wonderful things his grandmother had told him when

he was a child, but none of them helped him now. He was in despair, when

suddenly he looked up and saw that the tree under which he had been

sleeping was a superb plum, covered with fruit as yellow as gold.

'Here goes for the plums,' he said to himself, 'all is fair in war.'

He climbed the tree and began to eat steadily. But he had hardly

swallowed two plums when, to his horror, he felt as if something was

growing on his forehead. He put up his hand and found that he had two

horns!

He leapt down from the tree and rushed to a stream that flowed close

by. Alas! there was no escape: two charming little horns, that would not

have disgraced the head of a goat.

Then his courage failed him.

'As if it was not enough,' said he, 'that a woman should trick me, but

the devil must mix himself up in it and lend me his horns. What a pretty

figure I should cut if I went back into the world!'

But as he was still hungry, and the mischief was done, he climbed boldly

up another tree, and plucked two plums of a lovely green colour. No

sooner had he swallowed two than the horns disappeared. The little

soldier was enchanted, though greatly surprised, and came to the

conclusion that it was no good to despair too quickly. When he had done

eating an idea suddenly occurred to him.

'Perhaps,' thought he, 'these pretty little plums may help me to recover

my purse, my cloak, and my heart from the hands of this wicked Princess.

She has the eyes of a deer already; let her have the horns of one. If I

can manage to set her up with a pair, I will bet any money that I shall

cease to want her for my wife. A horned maiden is by no means lovely to

look at.' So he plaited a basket out of the long willows, and placed in

it carefully both sorts of plums. Then he walked bravely on for many

days, having no food but the berries by the wayside, and was in great

danger from wild beasts and savage men. But he feared nothing, except

that his plums should decay, and this never happened.

At last he came to a civilised country, and with the sale of some jewels

that he had about him on the evening of his flight he took passage on

board a vessel for the Low Countries. So, at the end of a year and a

day, he arrived at the capital of the kingdom.

VIII

The next day he put on a false beard and the dress of a date merchant,

and, taking a little table, he placed himself before the door of the

church.

He spread carefully out on a fine white cloth his Mirabelle plums, which

looked for all the world as if they had been freshly gathered, and when

he saw the Princess coming out of church he began to call out in a

feigned voice: 'Fine plums! lovely plums!'

'How much are they?' said the Princess.

'Fifty crowns each.'

'Fifty crowns! But what is there so very precious about them? Do they

give one wit, or will they increase one's beauty?'

'They could not increase what is perfect already, fair Princess, but

still they might add something.'

Rolling stones gather no moss, but they sometimes gain polish; and the

months which John had spent in roaming about the world had not been

wasted. Such a neatly turned compliment flattered Ludovine.

'What will they add?' she smilingly asked.

'You will see, fair Princess, when you taste them. It will be a surprise

for you.'

Ludovine's curiosity was roused. She drew out the purse and shook out as

many little heaps of fifty crowns as there were plums in the basket. The

little soldier was seized with a wild desire to snatch the purse from

her and proclaim her a thief, but he managed to control himself.

His plums all sold, he shut up shop, took off his disguise, changed his

inn, and kept quiet, waiting to see what would happen.

No sooner had she reached her room than the Princess exclaimed, 'Now let

us see what these fine plums can add to my beauty,' and throwing off her

hood, she picked up a couple and ate them.

Imagine with what surprise and horror she felt all of a sudden that

something was growing out of her forehead. She flew to her mirror and

uttered a piercing cry.

'Horns! so that was what he promised me! Let someone find the

plum-seller at once and bring him to me! Let his nose and ears be cut

off! Let him be flayed alive, or burnt at a slow fire and his ashes

scattered to the winds! Oh, I shall die of shame and despair!'

Her women ran at the sound of her screams, and tried to wrench off the

horns, but it was of no use, and they only gave her a violent headache.

The King then sent round a herald to proclaim that he would give the

hand of the Princess to anyone who would rid her of her strange

ornaments. So all the doctors and sorcerers and surgeons in the Low

Countries and the neighbouring kingdoms thronged to the palace, each

with a remedy of his own. But it was all no good, and the Princess

suffered so much from their remedies that the King was obliged to send

out a second proclamation that anyone who undertook to cure the

Princess, and who failed to do it, should be hanged up to the nearest

tree.

[Illustration: THE PRINCESS DRINKS THE PHIAL TO TAKE AWAY THE HORNS]

But the prize was too great for any proclamation to put a stop to the

efforts of the crowd of suitors, and that year the orchards of the Low

Countries all bore a harvest of dead men.

IX

The King had given orders that they should seek high and low for the

plum-seller, but in spite of all their pains, he was nowhere to be

found.

When the little soldier discovered that their patience was worn out, he

pressed the juice of the green Queen Claude plums into a small phial,

bought a doctor's robe, put on a wig and spectacles, and presented

himself before the King of the Low Countries. He gave himself out as a

famous physician who had come from distant lands, and he promised that

he would cure the Princess if only he might be left alone with her.

'Another madman determined to be hanged,' said the King. 'Very well, do

as he asks; one should refuse nothing to a man with a rope round his

neck.'

As soon as the little soldier was in the presence of the Princess he

poured some drops of the liquid into a glass. The Princess had scarcely

tasted it, when the tip of the horns disappeared.

'They would have disappeared completely,' said the pretended doctor, 'if

there did not exist something to counteract the effect. It is only

possible to cure people whose souls are as clean as the palm of my hand.

Are you sure you have not committed some little sin? Examine yourself

well.'

Ludovine had no need to think over it long, but she was torn in pieces

between the shame of a humiliating confession, and the desire to be

unhorned. At last she made answer with downcast eyes,

'I have stolen a leather purse from a little soldier.'

'Give it to me. The remedy will not act till I hold the purse in my

hands.'

It cost Ludovine a great pang to give up the purse, but she remembered

that riches would not benefit her if she was still to keep the horns.

With a sigh, she handed the purse to the doctor, who poured more of the

liquid into the glass, and when the Princess had drunk it, she found

that the horns had diminished by one half.

'You must really have another little sin on your conscience. Did you

steal nothing from this soldier but his purse?'

'I also stole from him his cloak.'

'Give it me.'

'Here it is.'

This time Ludovine thought to herself that when once the horns had

departed, she would call her attendants and take the things from the

doctor by force.

She was greatly pleased with this idea, when suddenly the pretended

physician wrapped himself in the cloak, flung away the wig and

spectacles, and showed to the traitress the face of the Little Soldier.

She stood before him dumb with fright.

'I might,' said John, 'have left you horned to the end of your days, but

I am a good fellow and I once loved you, and besides--you are too like

the devil to have any need of his horns.'

X

John had wished himself in the house of the Seagull. Now the Seagull was

seated at the window, mending her net, and from time to time her eyes

wandered to the sea as if she was expecting someone. At the noise made

by the little soldier, she looked up and blushed.

'So it is you!' she said. 'How did you get here?' And then she added in

a low voice, 'And have you married your Princess?'

Then John told her all his adventures, and when he had finished, he

restored to her the purse and the mantle.

'What can I do with them?' said she. 'You have proved to me that

happiness does not lie in the possession of treasures.'

'It lies in work and in the love of an honest women,' replied the little

soldier, who noticed for the first time what pretty eyes she had. 'Dear

Seagull, will you have me for a husband?' and he held out his hand.

'Yes, I will,' answered the fisher maiden, blushing very red, 'but only

on condition that we seal up the purse and the mantle in the copper

vessel and throw them into the sea.'

And this they did.

Charles Deulin.