“If it’s not for sale for gold or money, what is it that you will sell it for? You may name your own price,†said the Princess.
“Well, if I may get to the Prince who lives here and be with him to-night, you shall have it,†said the lassie whom the North Wind had brought.
Yes! she might; that could be done. So the Princess got the gold apple; but when the lassie came up to the Prince’s bedroom at night he was fast asleep; she called him and shook him, and between whiles she wept sore; but all she could do she couldn’t wake him up. Next morning, as soon as day broke, came the Princess with the long nose and drove her out again.
So in the daytime she sat under the castle windows and began to card with her golden carding-comb, and the same thing happened. The Princess asked what she wanted for it; and she said it wasn’t for sale for gold or money, but if she might get leave to go up to the Prince and be with him that night, the Princess should have it. But when she went up, she found him fast asleep again, and all she called, and all she shook, and wept, and prayed, she couldn’t get life into him; and as soon as the first gray peep of day came, then came the Princess with the long nose and chased her out again.
So, in the daytime, the lassie sat down outside under the castle window and began to spin with her golden spinning-wheel, and that, too, the Princess with the long nose wanted to have. So she threw up the window and asked what she wanted for it. The lassie said, as she had said twice before, it wasn’t for sale for gold or money; but if she might go up to the Prince who was there, and be with him alone that night, she might have it.
Yes! she might do that and welcome. But now you must know there were some folk who had been carried off thither, and as they sat in their room, which was next the Prince, they had heard how a woman had been in there, and wept and prayed, and called to him two nights running, and they told that to the Prince.
That evening, when the Princess came with her sleepy drink, the Prince made as if he drank, but threw it over his shoulder, for he could guess it was a sleepy drink. So, when the lassie came in, she found the Prince wide awake; and then she told him the whole story how she had come thither.
“Ah,†said the Prince, “you’ve just come in the very nick of time for to-morrow is to be our wedding-day; but now I won’t have the Long-nose, and you are the only woman in the world who can set me free. I’ll say I want to see what my wife is fit for, and beg her to wash the shirt which has the three spots of tallow on it; she’ll say yes, for she doesn’t know ’tis you who put them there; but that’s a work only for Christian folk, and not for such a pack of Trolls, and so I’ll say that I won’t have any other for my bride than the woman who can wash them out, and ask you to do it.â€
So there was great joy and love between them all that night. But next day, when the wedding was to be, the Prince said:—
“First of all I’d like to see what my bride is fit for.â€
“Yes,†said the stepmother, with all her heart.
“Well,†said the Prince, “I’ve got a fine shirt which I’d like for my wedding-shirt, but somehow or other it has got three spots of tallow on it, which I must have washed out; and I have sworn never to take any other bride than the woman who’s able to do that. If she can’t she’s not worth having.â€
Well, that was no great thing, they said, so they agreed, and she with the Long-nose began to wash away as hard as she could, but the more she rubbed and scrubbed, the bigger the spots grew.
“Ah,†said the old hag, her mother, “you can’t wash; let me try.â€
But she hadn’t long taken the shirt in hand, before it got far worse than ever, and with all her rubbing, and wringing, and scrubbing the spots grew bigger and blacker, and the darker and uglier was the shirt.
Then all the other trolls began to wash, but the longer it lasted the blacker and uglier the shirt grew, till at last it was as black all over as if it had been up the chimney.
“Ah,†said the Prince, “you’re none of you worth a straw; you can’t wash. Why there, outside, sits a beggar lassie, I’ll be bound she knows how to wash better than the whole lot of you. Come in, lassie,†he shouted.
Well, in she came.
“Can you wash this shirt clean, lassie, you?†said he.
“I don’t know,†she said, “but I think I can.â€
And almost before she had taken it and dipped it in the water, it was as white as driven snow, and whiter still.
“Yes; you are the lassie for me,†said the Prince.
At that the old hag flew into such a rage she burst on the spot, and the Princess with the long nose after her, and the whole pack of Trolls after her—at least I’ve never heard a word about them since.
As for the Prince and Princess, they set free all the poor folk who had been carried off and shut up there, and they took with them all the silver and gold, and flitted away as far as they could from the castle that layEAST O’ THE SUN AND WEST O’ THE MOON.
“Not quite the last,†exclaimed Queen Titania, and all the fairies who had begun to move hurried back to their places. “Not quite the last, for before we separate I will sing a song that you may tell to all the human children that you meet, and it shall be called the song of Queen Titania or