Page:Fairy tales and stories (Andersen, Tegner).djvu/214

182 played all the waltzes, galops, and polkas known from the creation of the world.

"That is superbe!" said the princess as she passed by; "I have never heard a more beautiful composition! Listen! Just go in and ask him the price of the instrument; but I sha'n't kiss him."

"He wants a hundred kisses from the princess!" said the maid of honor who had been in to ask him.

"I think he is crazy!" said the princess, and so she walked away, but when she had gone some distance she stopped. "We ought to encourage



art," she said, "and I am the emperor's daughter. Tell him he shall have ten kisses like yesterday, and the rest he can have from my maids of honor!"

"But we would rather not!" said the maids of honor.

"That's all nonsense," said the princess; "if I can kiss him, surely you can do so as well. Remember I give you your board and wages." And so the maid of honor had to go in to the swineherd again.

"A hundred kisses from the princess," he said, "Or each keeps his own!"

"Stand before me!" she said, and all the maids of honor placed themselves around while he kissed the princess.

"What is that crowd doing down there by the pigsty?" asked the