So the princess got a hare for three pairs of kisses, and ran home very joyfully; but just as she was touching the latch to open the gate, the hareherd sounded his whistle, the hare jumped like lightning from her bosom, and stopped not till it reached the flock.
The hareherd drove home his flock; the king was waiting for him at the gate, and let them in one by one, counting till he came to a hundred.
Next day the hareherd drove out his hares the third time, and left them to go their way.
The king now called his wife to the white chamber, and spoke thus to her: “My heart’s beautiful love, I have a great favor to ask of thee.”
“And what may it be, my dear husband?”
“Of a truth, nothing but this,—that thou dress in peasant’s clothes, go to the hareherd in the field, and ask a hare of him. If he will not give it for fair words, he may for a sweet kiss; but come not home to me without a hare, even if he asks a piece of thy flesh.”
Well, the queen yielded to her husband’s request, put on a peasant’s dress, and went to the field, where she found the Useless Wagoner sleeping in the shade. She roused him with her foot; he knew at once who was in the peasant’s dress.
“God give thee a good-day, hareherd!”
“God save thee, kind queen! What good hast thou brought the poor hareherd? Why hast thou come, may I ask?”
“I have only come to ask if thou wilt give me a hare for good money.”