Page:Fairy tales and stories (Andersen, Tegner).djvu/290

 258 much to get married. If she takes me, she takes me; and if she doesn't take me, I will take her for all that."

"What nonsense!" said his father; "I sha'n't give you a horse, Why, you can't talk properly. No; your brothers are fine specimens of what young fellows ought to be."

"If I can't have a horse," said Silly Hans, "I'll take the billy-goat; he's mine, and he carries me very well." And so he jumped astride the billy-goat, stuck his heels into its side, and set off along the highroad. "Heigh! what a pace! I am coming," said Silly Hans, and sang away till you heard him far and wide.

But the brothers rode quietly on in front; they did not speak a word; they were thinking over all the clever sayings with which they would have to be prepared, for they intended to be so very smart, you know.



"Hullo!" shouted Silly Hans, "here I am. Just look what I have found in the highroad!" and he showed them a dead crow which he had found.

"Blockhead!" they said, "what are you going to do with that?"

"I'll make a present of it to the king's daughter."

"Yes, do so by all means," they said, as they laughed and rode on.

"Hullo! here I am! Just look what I have found now; you don't find that every day in the highroad."

And the brothers turned round again to see what it was.

"Blockhead!" they said, "that's an old wooden clog, and the upper leather is gone. Is the king's daughter going to have that as well?"

"That she shall," said Silly Hans; and the brothers laughed and rode on, and got a long way ahead.