> was worn out, and he told his son that he should not stay at house in

idleness, and must go out into the world to seek his fortune.



The young man saw that there was no help for it, and he set out with

a wallet full of food over his shoulder. At length he came to a large

house, at the door of which he knocked.



'What do you want?' asked the old man who opened it. And the youth told

him how his father had turned him out of his house because he was so

lazy and stupid, and he needed shelter for the night.



'That you shall have,' replied the man; 'but to-morrow I shall give you

some work to do, for you must know that I am the chief herdsman of the

king.'



The youth made no answer to this. He felt, if he was to be made to work

after all, that he might as well have stayed where he was. But as he did

not see any other way of getting a bed, he went slowly in.



The herdsman's two daughters and their mother were sitting at supper,

and invited him to join them. Nothing more was said about work, and when

the meal was over they all went to bed.



In the morning, when the young man was dressed, the herdsman called to

him and said:



'Now listen, and I will tell you what you have to do.'



'What is it?' asked the youth, sulkily.



'Nothing less than to look after two hundred pigs,' was the reply.



'Oh, I am used to that,' answered the youth.



'Yes; but this time you will have to do it properly,' said the herdsman;

and he took the youth to the place where the pigs were feeding, and told

him to drive them to the woods on the side of the mountain. This the

young man did, but as soon as they reached the outskirts of the mountain

they grew quite wild, and would have run away altogether, had they not

luckily gone towards a narrow ravine, from which the youth easily drove

them home to his father's cottage.



'Where do all these pigs come from, and how did you get them?' asked the

old man in surprise, when his son knocked at the door of the hut he had

left only the day before.



'They belong to the king's chief herdsman,' answered his son. 'He gave

them to me to look after, but I knew I could not do it, so I drove them

straight to you. Now make the best of your good fortune, and kill them

and hang them up at once.'



'What are you talking about?' cried the father, pale with horror. 'We

should certainly both be put to death if I did any such thing.'



'No, no; do as I tell you, and I will get out of it somehow,' replied

the young man. And in the end he had his way. The pigs were killed,

and laid side by side in a row. Then he cut off the tails and tied them

together with a piece of cord, and swinging the bundle over his back,

he returned to the place where they should have been feeding. Here there

was a small swamp, which was just what he wanted, and finding a large

stone, he fastened the rope to it, and sank it in the swamp, after which

he arranged the tails carefully one by one, so that only their points

were seen sticking out of the water. When everything was in order, he

hastened home to his master with such a sorrowful face that the herdsman

saw at once that something dreadful had happened.



'Where are the pigs?' asked he.



'Oh, don't speak of them!' answered the young man; 'I really can hardly

tell you. The moment they got into the field they became quite mad, and

each ran in a different direction. I ran too, hither and thither, but as

fast as I caught one, another was off, till I was in despair. At last,

however, I collected them all and was about to drive them back, when

suddenly they rushed down the hill into the swamp, where they vanished

completely, leaving only the points of their tails, which you can see

for yourself.'



'You have made up that story very well,' replied the herdsman.



'No, it is the real truth; come with me and I'll prove it.' And they

went together to the spot, and there sure enough were the points of

the tails sticking up out of the water. The herdsman laid hold of the

nearest, and pulled at it with all his might, but it was no use, for

the stone and the rope held them all fast. He called to the young man to

help him, but the two did not succeed any better than the one had done.



'Yes, your story was true after all; it is a wonderful thing,' said the

herdsman. 'But I see it is no fault of yours, and I must put up with

my loss as well as I can. Now let us return home, for it is time for

supper.



Next morning the herdsman said to the young man: 'I have got some other

work for you to do. To-day you must take a hundred sheep to graze; but

be careful that no harm befalls them.'



'I will do my best,' replied the youth. And he opened the gate of the

fold, where the sheep had been all night, and drove them out into the

meadow. But in a short time they grew as wild as the pigs had done, and

scattered in all directions. The young man could not collect them, try

as he would, and he thought to himself that this was the punishment for

his laziness in refusing to look after his father's one cow.



At last, however, the sheep seemed tired of running about, and then

the youth managed to gather them together, and drove them, as before,

straight to his father's house.



'Whose sheep are these, and what are they doing here?' asked the old man

in wonder, and his son told him. But when the tale was ended the father

shook his head.



'Give up these bad ways and take them back to your master,' said he.



'No, no,' answered the youth; 'I am not so stupid as that! We will kill

them and have them for dinner.'



'You will lose your life if you do,' replied the father.



'Oh, I am not sure of that!' said the son, 'and, anyway, I will have my

will for once.' And he killed all the sheep and laid them on the grass.

But he cut off the head of the ram which always led the flock and had

bells round its horns. This he took back to the place where they should

have been feeding, for here he had noticed a high rock, with a patch of

green grass in the middle and two or three thick bushes growing on the

edge. Up this rock he climbed with great difficulty, and fastened the

ram's head to the bushes with a cord, leaving only the tips of the horns

with the bells visible. As there was a soft breeze blowing, the bushes

to which the head was tied moved gently, and the bells rang. When all

was done to his liking he hastened quickly back to his master.



'Where are the sheep?' asked the herdsman as the young man ran panting

up the steps.



'Oh! don't speak of them,' answered he. 'It is only by a miracle that I

am here myself.'



'Tell me at once what has happened,' said the herdsman sternly.



The youth began to sob, and stammered out: 'I--I hardly know how to tell

you! They--they--they were so--so troublesome--that I could not manage

them at all. They--ran about in--in all directions, and I--I--ran after

them and nearly died of fatigue. Then I heard a--a noise, which I--I

thought was the wind. But--but--it was the sheep, which, be--before my

very eyes, were carried straight up--up into the air. I stood watching

them as if I was turned to stone, but there kept ringing in my ears the

sound of the bells on the ram which led them.'



'That is nothing but a lie from beginning to end,' said the herdsman.



'No, it is as true as that there is a sun in heaven,' answered the young

man.



'Then give me a proof of it,' cried his master.



'Well, come with me,' said the youth. By this time it was evening and

the dusk was falling. The young man brought the herdsman to the foot of

the great rock, but it was so dark you could hardly see. Still the sound

of sheep bells rang softly from above, and the herdsman knew them to be

those he had hung on the horns of his ram.



'Do you hear?' asked the youth.



'Yes, I hear; you have spoken the truth, and I cannot blame you for what

has happened. I must bear the loss as best as I can.'



He turned and went home, followed by the young man, who felt highly

pleased with his own cleverness.



'I should not be surprised if the tasks I set you were too difficult,

and that you were tired of them,' said the herdsman next morning; 'but

to-day I have something quite easy for you to do. You must look after

forty oxen, and be sure you are very careful, for one of them has

gold-tipped horns and hoofs, and the king reckons it among his greatest

treasures.'



The young man drove out the oxen into the meadow, and no sooner had they

got there than, like the sheep and the pigs, they began to scamper in

all directions, the precious bull being the wildest of all. As the youth

stood watching them, not knowing what to do next, it came into his head

that his father's cow was put out to grass at no great distance; and he

forthwith made such a noise that he quite frightened the oxen, who were

easily persuaded to take the path he wished. When they heard the cow

lowing they galloped all the faster, and soon they all arrived at his

father's house.



The old man was standing before the door of his hut when the great herd

of animals dashed round a corner of the road, with his son and his own

cow at their head.



'Whose cattle are these, and why are they here?' he asked; and his son

told him the story.



'Take them back to your master as soon as you can,' said the old man;

but the son only laughed, and said:



'No, no; they are a present to you! They will make you fat!'



For a long while the old man refused to have anything to do with such a

wicked scheme; but his son talked him over in the end, and they killed

the oxen as they had killed the sheep and the pigs. Last of all they

came to the king's cherished ox.



The son had a rope ready to cast round its horns, and throw it to the

ground, but the ox was stronger than the rope, and soon tore it in

pieces. Then it dashed away to the wood, the youth following; over

hedges and ditches they both went, till they reached the rocky pass

which bordered the herdsman's land. Here the ox, thinking itself safe,

stopped to rest, and thus gave the young man a chance to come up with

it. Not knowing how to catch it, he collected all the wood he could

find and made a circle of fire round the ox, who by this time had fallen

asleep, and did not wake till the fire had caught its head, and it was

too late for it to escape. Then the young man, who had been watching,

ran home to his master.



'You have been away a long while,' said the herdsman. 'Where are the

cattle?'



The young man gasped, and seemed as if he was unable to speak. At last

he answered:



'It is always the same story! The oxen are--gone--gone!'



'G-g-gone?' cried the herdsman. 'Scoundrel, you lie!'



'I am telling you the exact truth,' answered the young man. 'Directly

we came to the meadow they grew so wild that I could not keep them

together. Then the big ox broke away, and the others followed till they

all disappeared down a deep hole into the earth. It seemed to me that I

heard sounds of bellowing, and I thought I recognised the voice of the

golden horned ox; but when I got to the place from which the sounds had

come, I could neither see nor hear anything in the hole itself, though

there were traces of a fire all round it.'



'Wretch!' cried the herdsman, when he had heard this story, 'even if you

did not lie before, you are lying now.'



'No, master, I am speaking the truth. Come and see for yourself.'



'If I find you have deceived me, you are a dead man, said the herdsman;

and they went out together.



'What do you call that?' asked the youth. And the herdsman looked and

saw the traces of a fire, which seemed to have sprung up from under the

earth.



'Wonder upon wonder,' he exclaimed, 'so you really did speak the truth

after all! Well, I cannot reproach you, though I shall have to pay

heavily to my royal master for the value of that ox. But come, let us

go home! I will never set you to herd cattle again, henceforward I will

give you something easier to do.'



'I have thought of exactly the thing for you,' said the herdsman as they

walked along, 'and it is so simple that you cannot make a mistake. Just

make me ten scythes, one for every man, for I want the grass mown in one

of my meadows to-morrow.'



At these words the youth's heart sank, for he had never been trained

either as a smith or a joiner. However, he dared not say no, but smiled

and nodded.



Slowly and sadly he went to bed, but he could not sleep, for wondering

how the scythes were to be made. All the skill and cunning he had shown

before was of no use to him now, and after thinking about the scythes

for many hours, there seemed only one way open to him. So, listening

to make sure that all was still, he stole away to his parents, and told

them the whole story. When they had heard everything, they hid him where

no one could find him.



Time passed away, and the young man stayed at home doing all his parents

bade him, and showing himself very different from what he had been

before he went out to see the world; but one day he said to his father

that he should like to marry, and have a house of his own.



'When I served the king's chief herdsman,' added he, 'I saw his

daughter, and I am resolved to try if I cannot win her for my wife.'



'It will cost you your life, if you do,' answered the father, shaking

his head.



'Well, I will do my best,' replied his son; 'but first give me the sword

which hangs over your bed!'



The old man did not understand what good the sword would do, however he

took it down, and the young man went his way.



Late in the evening he arrived at the house of the herdsman, and knocked

at the door, which was opened by a little boy.



'I want to speak to your master,' said he.



'So it is you?' cried the herdsman, when he had received the message.

'Well, you can sleep here to-night if you wish.'



'I have come for something else besides a bed,' replied the young man,

drawing his sword, 'and if you do not promise to give me your youngest

daughter as my wife I will stab you through the heart.'



What could the poor man do but promise? And he fetched his youngest

daughter, who seemed quite pleased at the proposed match, and gave the

youth her hand.



Then the young man went home to his parents, and bade them get ready

to welcome his bride. And when the wedding was over he told his

father-in-law, the herdsman, what he had done with the sheep, and pigs,

and cattle. By-and-by the story came to the king's ears, and he thought

that a man who was so clever was just the man to govern the country; so

he made him his minister, and after the king himself there was no one so

great as he.



[From Islandische Mahrchen.]