The bed careered along as if it were drawn by six horses. Sometimes it was in the castle, sometimes outside, and the way it jolted over the thresholds and jigged up and down the stairs was very surprising, to say the least. Suddenly it went hop, hop, hop, with more violence than ever, and turned topsy-turvy so that it lay on the lad like a mountain. But he pitched the pillows and blankets into the air, and soon he had disencumbered himself and got on his feet. “Now some one else may ride,” said he, and he made his way back to his fire and lay down on the hearth and went to sleep.
In the morning the king came to the castle and found the youth stretched out on the floor. He thought the ghosts had killed him, and he said, “It is a pity that such a vigorous, handsome fellow should thus perish.”
But the youth heard him and sat up, saying, “It has not come to that yet.”
The king was much surprised, and asked him how he had fared.
“Very well,” he answered. “One night is gone, and I expect to get safely through the others.”
Presently he returned to the inn. The landlord opened his eyes when he saw him, and said: “I never thought to behold you alive again. Have you learned how to shiver yet?”
“No,” replied the lad, “it’s all in vain.”
The second night he went again to the castle, started a fire, and sat down by it and began his old song, “Oh if I could only learn to shiver!”
At midnight he commenced to hear a ringing, rattling noise, first soft, but increasing till there was a great uproar. Then there was a sudden silence. At last, with a loud scream, half a man’s body came tumbling down the chimney and rolled out on the floor in front of the lad. “Hello!” he said, “here is only half a man. This is not enough.”
The rattling and ringing were renewed, and soon, amidst shrieks and howls, the other half fell down.