Quickly he found a wedge and drove it into the crack with a stone, and then the old hag pulled her nose out.
“Now you have done me a good turn, and I have it in mind to do the same for you,” she said. With that she took a pretty little pipe out of the pocket of her skirt. “Do you take this,” she said, “and it will come in handy if you’re on your way to the King’s palace. If you blow on the right end of the whistle the things around you will be blown every which way as if a strong wind had struck them, and if you blow on the wrong end of it they will be gathered together again. And those are not the only tricks the pipe has, for if any one takes it from you, you have only to wish for it, and you can wish it back into your fingers again.”
Boots took the pipe and thanked the old hag kindly, and then he bade her good-by and went on his way to the King’s palace.
When the King heard what Boots had come for, he was no less ready to take him for a herdsman than he had been to take his brothers. “But, mind you, you shall have a drubbing that will make your bones ache if you come back in the evening with even the smallest leveret missing from the herd,” said the King.
Yes, that was all right. The lad was ready to take the risk, so all morning Boots herded the hares in the paddock, and in the afternoon he took them out to the hills, as the bargain was. There the hares could no longer be kept in a herd. They kicked up their heels and away they went, every which way.
So that was the game, was it? Boots was very willing to play it, too. He took out his pipe and blew a tune on the right end of it, and away the hares flew faster than they had intended, as though a strong wind had blown them. Presently there was not one left on the hill. Then the lad lay down in the sun and fell asleep.
When he awoke it was toward evening and time to be bringing the hares back to the castle, but not one of them was in sight.
Then Boots sat up, and shook the hair out of his eyes and blew on the wrong end of the pipe. Immediately there was the whole herd before him, drawn up in ranks just like soldiers. Not even one of the smallest leverets was missing.
“That is well,” said Boots. “And now we’ll be going home again.”
Off he set for the palace, driving the hares before him, and as soon as he came near enough he could see the King standing on the steps waiting for him with a stout cudgel in his hand,—for he had no thought but that Boots would fail in his task.