THE MAGIC PIPE
A Norse Tale
There was once three brothers, all the sons of the same father and mother.
The two elder were hard-working, thrifty lads, who had no care except as to how they might better themselves in the world. But the youngest, whose name was Boots, was not thrifty at all. He was a do-nothing and was quite content to sit in the chimney corner and warm his shins and think about things.
One day the eldest son came to his father and said, “I have it in mind to go over yonder to the King’s castle and take service there, for I hear the King has need of a herdsman to take care of his hares for him. The wages are six dollars a week, and if any one can keep the herd together and bring them safe home every night without losing one of them the King will give him the Princess for a wife.”
The father was pleased when he heard this. Six dollars a week was fair pay, and it would be a fine thing if the lad could win the Princess for his wife. At any rate it was worth trying for.
So the eldest son cocked his hat over one ear, and off he set for the palace.
He had not gone so very far when he came to the edge of a forest, and there was an old crone with a green nose a yard long, and it was caught in a crack of a log. She was dancing and hopping about, but for all her dancing and hopping she got no farther than that one spot, for her nose held her there.
The lad stopped and stared at her, and she looked so funny to his mind that he laughed and laughed till his sides ached.