Page:Christmas Fireside Stories.djvu/256

 244 ASHIEPATTLE AND THE PRINCESS. ..... ,, l..V^. '» -" » «. » 1 1 • — •»-' M.,,..., ^^ ,! ! Well, there were three brothers, who were also going to try their luck, and the two elder set out first, but they fared no better than all the others. So Ashiepattle thought he would try, and 9et out for the palace. He met the princess outside the cow-house. " Good day," said he.— - * * Good day," said she ; " I suppose you haven't got such a big cow-bouse as wc. When two boys stand, one at each end, and blow their horns, they can't hear each other I"— " Oh, indeed," said Ashiepattle, " ours is a great deal bigger ! If a young calf starts togofromoneendofittotheother,heisabigbullbythetime he comes out." " May be," said the princess ; " but then you haven't got so big a bull as wc have ! Look, there he is !—When two men sit, one on each horn, they can't touch each other with a yard measure. " — " Why, that's nothing," said Ashiepattle ; "wc have a bull so big, that when two men sit, one on each horn, and blow their horns, they can't hear each other. " "Oh, indeed," said the princess, "but you haven't got so much milk as wc anyhow, for wc milk our cows into great tubs and empty them into great big coppers, and make such awful big cheeses." dairy, and put the milk into great brewing vats and make cheeses as big as houses. Once wc had a cream-coloured mare, which wc put into the vat to tread the cheese together, and she had her foal with her, but one day she lost the foal in the cheese and wc couldn't find it. But after wc had been eating the cheese for seven years, wc came across a great big cream-coloured horse who was walking about in the cheese. I was going to drive that horse to the mill one day and all of a sudden his back broke right off; but I knew how to put that right. I took a pine-twig and stuck it in his back, and he had no other back-bone as long as wc had him. But that twig grew and grew so tall, that I climbed right up to the clouds by it, and when I got there I saw the north wind sitting there spinning a rope of mutton broth. Suddenly the top of the pine-tree broke off, and there I was. But the north wind let me
 * Well, wc milk into great big casks, which wc cart into the