He sent his father to the town, and bade him, ‘Buy for me, father, an apple weighing one pound.’
The father came back home, and gave the apple to his son. The latter was delighted with it, and he made preparations for going out into the world. He embraced his father and mother. ‘The good God be with you,’ he said to them, ‘for it may be I shall never see you more; perchance I may perish.’
He came to a field, where he saw two boys fighting terribly. The father of these two boys had, when dying, left to the one a cloak and to the other a saddle. The little boy went up to these boys and asked them, ‘What are you fighting about?’
‘Excuse us, my lord,’ replied the younger, ‘our parents are dead; they have left to one of us a cloak and to the other a saddle; my elder brother wants to take both cloak and saddle, and not to give me anything.’
This little nobleman said to them, ‘Come now, I will put you right. Here is an apple which I will throw far out into this field; and whichever of you gets it first shall have both of these things.’
He flung away the apple, and while the boys were running to get it, this little nobleman purloined both cloak and [[165]]saddle. He resumed his journey, and went away, with the help of God. He came to a field, he stopped, he examined the cloak he had just stolen, and to the saddle he cried, ‘Bear me away to where my youngest sister lives.’ The saddle took hold of him, lifted him into the air, and carried him to the dwelling of his youngest sister. He cried to his youngest sister, ‘Let me in, sister.’
Her answer was, ‘Twenty years have I been here, and have never seen anybody all that time; and you—you will break my slumber.’
‘Sister, if you do not believe I am your brother, here is a handkerchief which will prove that I am.’
His sister read thereon the names of her father, her mother, and her brother. Then she let him enter, and fainted away. ‘Where am I to hide you now, brother? for if my husband comes he will devour you.’
‘Have no fear on my account,’ he replied, ‘I have a cloak which renders me invisible whenever I wear it.’