Page:The Way of a Virgin.djvu/155

THE PRINCESS. If the Princess doth succeed in pissing o'er this heap of hay," he thought, "I am mad." And he went to tell the king the haycock was ready.

On the morrow came the Princess; and she fell to laughing when she saw the haycock. She raised her robe and pissed high o'er the heap of hay. The youth was thunderstruck. On the order of the king, they seized the youth and cast him into a dungeon with the physicians who had essayed the venture before him.

A year and a day after the departure of his eldest brother, the second peasant set forth in his turn, taking the road followed by his brother one year before. Journeying fifteen days, he, too, came upon the castle, and, entering therein, demanded the work of a servant. Him also the king saw, putting the proposal he had made to his elder brother. Which proposal the youth accepted.

Well received by the family of the Princess, he pictured himself already the son-in-law of the king, and built project upon project for the future. He chose a vast plain, and thither caused to be borne six thousand loads of hay. Next he took one thousand labourers and set them to erect the haycock.

On the morrow the Princess approached the haycock, gave vent to a great shriek of laughter, raised her robe, and—pissed high o'er the haycock.

And the second brother went to join his elder in the dungeon of the king's palace.

The youngest peasant was sore pained in that his brethren returned not.

"Assuredly they have suffered some mischance in their travels," quoth he to himself. "'Twere ill of me did I not set forth in search of 155