Page:Segnius Irritant or Eight Primitive Folk-lore Stories.pdf/24

 would stand it. Then he laid himself down by the shore and drank. After a very little time the water had fallen so much that Long quite easily reached the bottom, and drew the shell out of the sea. And he took the ring out of it, put his comrades on his shoulders, and hastened back to the castle. But on the way home it was just a little inconvenient to run with Broad on his back, the fellow having half a sea of water inside him, and so he shook him off his shoulders on to the ground in a broad valley. He bounced about like a bladder let fall from a tower, and in a moment the whole valley was under water, like a great lake. Broad himself scarcely managed to creep out of it.

Meanwhile, in the castle, the king’s son was in great anxiety. The sun’s beam began to show itself from behind the two mountains and the servants still returned not; and the more fiercely the rays mounted on high, the greater grew his distress. A deadly sweat started to his forehead. Then soon the sun appeared in the east like a thin glowing stripe, and at that moment the doors flew open with a tremendous bang, and on the threshold stood Black-Prince, and, seeing no signs of the queen, chuckled horribly and stepped into the apartment. But at that moment—crunch!—the window flew in pieces and a golden ring fell upon the floor, and at that very instant there stood the queen again. Sharp-Eyes, seeing what was happening in the castle, and what danger his master was in, informed Long. Long took a step and threw the ring through the window into the room. Black-Prince roared with rage till the castle shook again, and then—crick! crack! crick!—the third iron hoop cleft upon him, bounded off, and Black-Prince turned into a raven and flew away out of the window.

And then immediately this beautiful virgin addressed the king’s son and thanked him for having set her free, and she blushed like a rose. And in the castle and round about the castle all at once everything came to life; he who held in the hall a drawn hunting knife flourished it in the air till the air whistled again, and then stuck it in the sheath; he who stumbled at the threshold finished falling on to the ground, but immediately got up again and caught himself by the nose to see if it was still whole; he who sat by the chimney corner put the mouthful of roast meat between his lips and went on eating; in a word, everyone finished doing what he had begun, and went on where he had left off. In the stables, the horses pawed the ground and whinnied cheerily; the trees about the