“I will not give a hare for money, my queen; but if thou wilt give me three kisses, I will return them again. Then I don’t mind; I’ll risk my head, and let thee have a hare.”
So the queen got a hare for three pairs of kisses, and took her way home joyously; but just as she was putting her hand on the latch to open the gate, the hareherd sounded the whistle, the hare jumped like a flash from the queen’s bosom, and stopped not till it joined its companions.
When the hares were all together, the hareherd drove them home. The king was waiting for him at the gate, let each in singly, counting till he reached a hundred,—not one missing from the round number.
Next morning the hares were driven out as before; but the king now put on a peasant’s dress, and went to the field himself. When he came to the hareherd he said: “God give thee good-day!”
“God save thee, poor man!” answered the hareherd. “What art thou looking for?”
“Well, what’s the use in delay or denial? I have come to buy a little hare of thee for good money. Of course thou wilt part with one.”
“I will not give one for money; but if I can wear out twelve rods on thy back, I don’t mind; I’ll risk my head on it.”
What was the king to do? He stretched himself out with face and hands on the grass, and the hareherd flogged him as a corporal does a soldier; but he endured it all, gritting his teeth, and thinking to himself, “Wait a bit, thief of a Useless Wagoner, thou wilt have a dose when I get at thee!”
But all to no use, for when the king had reached home, and was just putting his hand on the latch to open the gate, the whistle sounded, and the hare sprang away from him like a flash, and ran till it joined the flock.
Then the Useless Wagoner drove home the hundred hares a fourth time. The king was standing at the little gate; he counted them one by one, but could find no fault, for they were all there.