For a long time her father tried hard to find something that would amuse her. But she would sit all day at her window, and, though the members of the court passed and repassed, and called out greetings to her, she would only sigh.

So at last her father the King caused it to be published abroad that whoever should make the Princess laugh should have her hand in marriage, and that half of the kingdom would be her dowry.

But, that none might attempt this difficult feat without fair assurance, the King added as a sort of postscript to his decree that whoever tried to make the Princess laugh and failed should have two broad red stripes cut in his back, and salt should be rubbed into the stripes!

Now, as you may imagine, soon there were a great many sore backs in the kingdom and in the kingdoms round about. For it was deemed but a slight matter to make a Princess laugh: did not women giggle at little and at nothing?

But, although many came, and there were strange things done, the Princess remained as sad as before.

Now, there was in the kingdom a farmer who had three sons, and they decided that each should have a trial at this task; for to win a dowry of half a kingdom was well worth trying.

The oldest of the farmer’s sons was a soldier, and had served in the wars, where there was always much laughter. And he said that it would not be worth while for his two brothers to plan to journey to the court, because he intended to win the Princess that very first day.

So he dressed up in his uniform, and put his knapsack on his back, and strutted up and down the road in front of the window of the Princess like any pouter-pigeon. But, though the Princess looked at him, once, she did not even turn her eyes in his direction a second time, and the stripes which were cut in his back were deep and broad, and he went home feeling very sore.

His next brother was a schoolmaster, and had one long leg and one short leg, so that when he stood on the long leg he seemed a very tall man, and when he stood on the short leg he seemed but a dwarf, and he had always found that he could make folk laugh by quickly changing himself from a tall man to a mere dwarf. Moreover, he was a preacher, and he came out on the road in front of the Princess’ window and preached like seven parsons and chanted like seven clerks; but it was all for naught, for after the first glance the Princess did not even look at him, though the King who stood near had to hold on to the pillars for laughing.

So the schoolmaster also went home with a very sore back; and when the third brother, whose name was Taper Tom, because he sat in the ashes and made tapers out of fir, said he now would go and make the Princess laugh, the two older brothers turned to him in scorn, for how could he do what neither of them, the soldier and the schoolmaster, had quite failed to do? The Princess would not even look at him, he might be sure.