THE MASTER-MAID
Once there was a King who had a son, and this Prince would not stay at home, but went a long, long way off to a very far country. There he met a Giant; and though it seems a strange thing for a King’s son to do, the Prince went to the Giant’s house to be his servant, and the Giant gave the Prince a room, to sleep in, which, very strangely, had a door on every side. However, the Prince thought little of this, for he was very tired, and he went quickly to bed, and slept soundly all night.
Now, the Giant had a large herd of goats; and very likely the Prince thought the Giant would send him to herd the goats. But the Giant did nothing of the sort. In the morning he prepared to take the goats to pasture himself; but before he set out he told the Prince that he expected him to clean the stable before he came back in the evening.
“I am a very easy master,” said the Giant, “and that is all I expect you to do. But remember, I expect the work to be well done.” Then, before he reached the door, he turned back and said, in a threatening way: “You are not to open a single one of the doors in your room. If you do, I shall kill you.”
Then the Giant shut the door in a way that seemed to say, “I mean every word I have said,” and he went off with his goats, and left the Prince alone.
When he was gone, the Prince drummed for a while with his fingers on the window. Then, when the Giant and his flock had gone out of sight, he began to walk about the room, whistling to himself and looking at the forbidden doors.
The house seemed silent and lonely, and he really had nothing to do. To clean a stable with only one stall seemed a very small task for a sturdy boy like him.
At last he said to himself: “I wonder what the Giant keeps behind those doors? I think I shall look and see.”
If the Giant had been there the Prince would have paid dear for his curiosity; but he was far away, and the Prince boldly opened the first door, and inside he saw a huge pot, or cauldron, boiling away merrily.
“What a strange thing,” said the Prince; “there is no fire under the pot. I must go in and see it!”