The Useless Wagoner drove out the hares the fifth time to pasture; but the king mounted the chariot which went wherever the owner commanded, and drove to the Useless Wagoner, taking three empty bags with him. “Dost hear me, thou!—this-and-that-kind-of-work-shunning? Hareherd, I revile thy soul! If thou wilt not fill these three bags with truth, I will strike off thy head.”
To all this the Useless Wagoner answered in words: “The king’s daughter came out; I gave her, and she gave me. The queen came; I gave her, and she gave me. The king came; I gave him, and he—”
“Stop! stop!” cried the king, “the three bags are full; and I’d rather be in hell than hear thy words.”
At this speech the chariot started off with the king, and never stopped till it took him to the bottom of hell.
Then the Useless Wagoner went home, married the king’s daughter, became king, and reigns yet with his queen, unless he is dead.
MIRKO, THE KING’S SON.
ONCE there was a king, and he had three sons. The king rejoiced in his three sons, and resolved to have them instructed in a befitting manner, so that he might leave good heirs to the kingdom. Therefore he sent his sons to school, where they got on well enough for a time, till at length they turned their backs on the school, went home, all three, and knew their studies no more.
The king grew fiercely angry at this, forbade his sons to stand before his face, and betook himself to live in the chamber of his palace next the rising sun, where he sat continually at the window and looked towards the east as if waiting for something; and with one eye he wept unceasingly, while with the other he laughed.