“Daddy,” said Hans, “please bring me some bagpipes.”
When the farmer returned home he gave his wife and the maid the things they had asked for, and then he went behind the stove and gave Hans the Hedgehog the bagpipes.
As soon as Hans received this gift he said: “Daddy, tomorrow morning I wish you would take our largest rooster to the harness-maker and have him fitted with a bridle. I want to use him for my horse.”
So the next day the farmer had a harness made for the biggest rooster on the farm. Then Hans the Hedgehog mounted on the rooster’s back and rode away to the forest. There he made the rooster fly up to the top of a lofty tree with him.
For several years he dwelt, there in the greenwood, and most of the time he stayed high among the branches of that tall tree. Meanwhile his father knew nothing of what had become of him.
As he sat on the rooster’s back in the tree-top he played on his bagpipes and made beautiful music. Once a king who had lost his way in the forest came riding near enough to hear him. He was much surprised, and sent a servant to find out whence the music came. The man peered about, but saw only what seemed to be a rooster perched high in a tree with a hedgehog on his back, and this hedgehog was apparently playing some bagpipes.
The king told the servant to ask the strange creature why he sat there, and also to ask if he could direct him how to find the way back to his kingdom.
When the servant put these questions, Hans the Hedgehog came down from the tree and said he would show the way if the king would give him his written promise to let him have whatever his Royal Highness first met as he approached his castle on his return.
The king thought: “This hedgehog probably does not know one word from another. I can write what I please.”
So he took pen and ink, wrote something, and then Hans the Hedgehog showed him the road, and he got safely home. His daughter saw him coming while he was still at a distance, and she ran to meet him and threw her arms about him. Then he remembered Hans the Hedgehog, and told her what had happened in the forest, and how he had been required to give a written promise to bestow whatever he first met as he approached his palace to an extraordinary creature which had shown him the way. “The upper half of the creature was like a hedgehog,” said the king, “and he rode on a rooster just as if the rooster had been a horse, and he had bagpipes and made lovely music. But he certainly could not read, and I wrote that I would not give him anything at all.”