“I flew over the sea,” said the young man.
“Indeed!” said the old man. “And how did you manage that?”
Then the traveller showed his diamond, and told the old man what a wonderful stone it was, and how it gave any one power to fly through the air.
“If you will give me your diamond,” said the old man, “I will give you my axe. You see I have no legs, so you may wonder how I live. This is the way I live. If I slap this axe on the handle, and say, Wood and fire! away it flies, and cuts wood and kindles a fire. If I slap the steel, and say, Heads! away it flies, and chops off the head of a goat or any animal I want; and then it brings me meat for my dinner. Now I have lived here for a thousand years by the help of my axe, and I am rather tired of being in one place. I should like to see the world before I die, and that is why I want your diamond.”
“All right,” said the young man, “it’s a bargain.” They exchanged the axe and the diamond; the old man turned it over in his hand, chuckling greedily. As soon as the young man got grip of the axe, he smacked the steel, and says he, “Heads!” In a jiffy the axe sliced through the old man’s neck like a turnip, and he had no more head than legs.
Then the traveller picked up the diamond, and put it in his pocket. So now he had two magic things instead of one. He blessed his luck, and fell asleep very happily inside the old magician’s hut.
Next morning, with the diamond in his pocket and the axe on his shoulder, the young man set out on his travels. All day long he walked through the forest, until at evening time he saw before him another hut, like the first, where lived the old man with no legs. Before this hut, too, there was a fire burning, and beside the fire sat an old man without any arms. Whether a tiger had bitten off his arms or whether he never had any, I cannot say, because he never told me; but there he sat like a pair of compasses. He had the stump of a tree to sit on, and before him was another stump, and on this stump was a large bowl of milk, out of which he was drinking. When he saw our friend, he tipped over this bowl with his chin; instantly a deep roaring river surrounded him and his hut, and he sat in the middle, laughing at the young man’s surprise. But he did not laugh long, for the young man instantly wished himself over the river, and there he was. Now it was his turn to laugh.
“How on earth did you do that?” asked the old man. He was much too astonished to think of saying good-day.
“Oh, that’s nothing,” said the young man, and showed him his diamond.
The old man’s eyes glistened. He thought how nice it would be to have that diamond.