The young man listened to the advice of the maiden, and then returned home and told all to his mother. After that he went to the king and demanded all the things that the maiden had counselled him to procure. The king could not refuse, so all that he asked was given him, and he sailed away.
All things happened exactly as the young maiden had foretold, and the young man came back with the king’s daughter happily to his own country.
The king and his first minister, the uncle of the young man, saw, from the windows of the palace, the ship whilst yet it was far from the city; and the minister said to the king, ‘Now there is nothing left to do but to kill him as he comes out of the ship!’ When the ship reached the port, the king’s daughter first came ashore with her companions; then the handsome young shopmen, and, lastly, the young man alone. But the king had had the headsman placed there, and when the young man stepped on the shore the executioner cut his head off. The king intended to marry the king’s daughter; accordingly, as soon as she came on land he ran to her, and began to caress her, but she turned away her head from him, and said, ‘Where is he who has been working for me?’ And when she saw that his head was cut off she rushed to the body, took out some water of life and poured over it, so he arose alive and well as ever. When the king and his minister saw this wonder, the minister said to the king, ‘This man will know now more than ever he did, since he has been dead and is come back to life!’ Then the king began to wonder if it were true that a man who has been dead knows more when he returns to life, and, in order to satisfy his curiosity, he ordered the headsman to cut off his head, and directed that the girl with the water of life should bring him again to life. But, after the king’s head was cut off, the girl refused to restore him to life. Instead of doing so, she wrote a letter to her father, told him all that had happened, and told him her wish to marry the young man. So the king, her father, sent forth a proclamation that the people should take the young man for their king, and threatened to declare war against them if they refused to do so. The people recognised immediately the merits of the young man, and owned that he deserved to be their king, and to marry the king’s daughter. Accordingly they made him king, and he married the king’s daughter. Then the handsome young men, who had sailed with him in the ship as shopmen, married the companions of the king’s daughter who was now queen, and thus all of them became great dignitaries in the kingdom.
WHO ASKS LITTLE, GETS MUCH.
ONCE on a time there lived three brothers, who had no property except one pear-tree. This they watched carefully, each of them in turn guarding it, whilst the other two worked for wages away from home. One day God sent an angel to see how these brothers were living; and ordered the angel, if they lived very poorly, to give them better food. When the angel came down to the earth, he changed himself into the form of a beggar; and when he saw one of the brothers watching the pear-tree, asked him to give him a pear. Then the brother plucked some pears, and gave them to the beggar, and said, ‘Here, take these from my share of the pears; I cannot give you any of those which belong to my brothers.’ So the angel thanked the man and went away.
Next morning the second brother remained to guard the pear-tree; and the angel came again, and begged him to give him a pear. The man took some of the pears and gave them to the angel, saying, ‘Take these from my pears; but from the pears of my brothers I dare not give you any.’
The third day the third brother stayed at home to watch the pear-tree, and the angel came as before, and asked only for one pear. And this brother said also, ‘Here are some of my pears; from the pears of my brothers I cannot give you any.’
The day after, the angel changed himself into a monk, and came very early, so that he found all three brothers at home, and said to them, ‘Come with me; I will give you better nourishment than you have at present.’
The three brothers followed him without saying a word. At last they came to a large torrent, where the water flowed in great streams, and made a loud noise. Then the angel asked the eldest brother, ‘What would you like?’ And the man answered, ‘I should like all this water to be changed into wine, and to belong to me.’