Page:Lange - The Blue Fairy Book.djvu/161

 believed it was the Master-maid again, and turned himself on the bench, and lay down to sleep once more. When he had slept again for many hours, he began to move and stretch himself. ‘Is it not done yet?’ said he.

‘It is quite ready,’ said the third drop of blood. Then the giant began to sit up, and rub his eyes, but he could not see who it was who had spoken to him, so he asked for the Master-maid, and called her. But there was no one to give him an answer.

‘Ah! well, she has just stolen out for a little,’ thought the giant, and he took a spoon, and went off to the cauldron to have a taste; but there was nothing in it but shoe-soles, and rags, and such trumpery as that, and all was boiled up together, so that he could not tell whether it was porridge or milk pottage. When he saw this, he understood what had happened, and fell into such a rage that he hardly knew what he was doing. Away he went after the prince and the Master-maid, so fast that the wind whistled behind him, and it was not long before he came to the water, but he could not get over it. ‘Well, well, I will soon find a cure for that: I have only to call my river-sucker,’ said the giant, and he did call him. So his river-sucker came and lay down, and drank one, two, three draughts, and with that the water in the sea fell so low that the giant saw the Master-maid and the Prince out on the sea in their ship. ‘Now you must throw out the lump of salt,’ said the Mastermaid, and the Prince did so, and it grew up into such a great high mountain right across the sea that the giant could not come over it, and the river-sucker could not drink any more water. ‘Well, well, I will soon find a cure for that,’ said the giant, so he called to his hill-borer to come and bore through the mountain so that the river-sucker might be able to drink up the water again. But just as the hole was made, and the river-sucker was beginning to drink, the Master-maid told the Prince to throw one or two drops out of the flask, and when he did this the sea instantly became full of water again, and before the river-sucker could take one drink they reached the land and were in safety. So they determined to go home to the Prince’s father, but the Prince would on no account permit the Master-maid to walk there, for he thought that it was unbecoming either for her or for him to go on foot.

‘Wait here the least little bit of time, while I go home for the seven horses which stand in my father’s stable,’ said he; ‘it is not far off, and I shall not be long away, but I will not let my betrothed bride go on foot to the palace.’