“Well,” responded Philip, “however things may turn out, I shall get the job if I can. Surely it will be no harder than to take care of the calf and goat here at home.”
So he packed his bag, lifted it to his shoulder, and started for the palace of the king. He trudged along until he heard a voice calling, and when he looked about he saw the old woman in the pit. “Good day, grandmother,” said he, “what can I do for you?”
“Help me out of this hole,” she said, “and give me something to eat. I will do you a good turn afterward, you may depend on it.”
He was willing enough, and he pulled her out of the pit. Then he opened his bag and sat down to eat and drink with her. She had a keen appetite after her long fast, and naturally got the lion’s share, but that did not trouble Philip any. As soon as they finished, she gave him a magic horn, and said: “If you blow into the small end of it, whatever you wish away will be scattered to the four winds; and if you blow into the large end the things you wish near will at once come about you. Should the horn ever be lost or taken from you, all you have to do is to wish for it, and it will return to you.”
“Very good,” responded Philip. “Such a horn is worth having.”
So saying, he resumed his walk, and at length he came to the king’s palace. He was hired to keep the rabbits, and he was much pleased, for he was certain of good food and generous wages, and if he were clever enough not to lose any of the rabbits he might win the princess, too. The next morning he began work, and at first he found the task an easy one. As long as the rabbits were in the lanes and fields they behaved very well, but while he was eating his noon lunch they wandered to the woodland, where they frisked about and scampered away into the underbrush.
“Ho, ho!” cried Philip, “you want to leave me, do you? Well, off with you then,” and he blew into the small end of the magic horn.
Immediately they were all gone from view, and Philip found a mossy spot to his liking and lay down to sleep till eventide. The sun was low in the west when he awoke, and he took up his horn and blew into the large end of it. At once the rabbits came frolicking about him, and he led them like a flock of sheep to the king’s palace. The king, the queen, and the princess, too, all came out on the porch and wondered how he contrived to manage the rabbits so well. Several times the king counted them to make sure they were all there and he had to acknowledge that not one was missing.
“That rabbit-keeper would be a fine lad,” said the princess, “if only he was of noble birth.”
The next day he took the rabbits out again, and when they roamed to the woodland he lay down in the shade at the edge of the wood close to the sunny slope where the wild strawberries grew and scented the air with their sweet odor.