Directly the ogress returned home she flung herself with all her weight on the bed, and the whole cave quivered under her.The pillows were soft and full instead of being empty, which surprised her, but that did not content her.She got up, shook out the pillow-cases one by one, and began to count the feathers that were in each.'If one is missing I will have your head,' said she, and at that the young man drew the feather from his pocket and thrust it up her nose, crying 'If you want your feather, here it is.'
'You did not sort those feathers alone,' answered the ogress calmly;'however, this time I will let that pass.'
That night the young man slept soundly in his corner, and in the morning the ogress told him that his work that day would be to slay one of her great oxen, to cook its heart, and to make drinking cups of its horns, before she returned home 'There are fifty oxen,' added she, 'and you must guess which of the herd I want killed.If you guess right, to-morrow you shall be free to go where you will, and you shall choose besides three things as a reward for your service.
But if you slay the wrong ox your head shall pay for it.'
Left alone, the young man stood thinking for a little.Then he called: 'Tritill, Litill, come to my help!'
In a moment he saw them, far away, driving the biggest ox the youth had ever seen.When they drew near, Tritill killed it, Litill took out its heart for the young man to cook, and both began quickly to turn the horns into drinking cups.The work went merrily on, and they talked gaily, and the young man told his friends of the payment promised him by the ogress if he had done her bidding.The old men warned him that he must ask her for the chest which stood at the foot of her bed, for whatever lay on the top of the bed, and for what lay under the side of the cave.The young man thanked them for their counsel, and Tritill and Litill then took leave of him, saying that for the present he would need them no more.
Scarcely had they disappeared when the ogress came back, and found everything ready just as she had ordered.Before she sat down to eat the bullock's heart she turned to the young man, and said: 'You did not do that all alone, my friend; but, nevertheless, Iwill keep my word, and to-morrow you shall go your way.' So they went to bed and slept till dawn.
When the sun rose the ogress awoke the young man, and called to him to choose any three things out of her house.
'I choose,' answered he, 'the chest which stands at the foot of your bed; whatever lies on the top of the bed, and whatever is under the side of the cave.'
'You did not choose those things by yourself, my friend,' said the ogress; 'but what I have promised, that will I do.'
And then she gave him his reward.
'The thing which lay on the top of the bed' turned out to be the lost princess.'The chest which stood at the foot of the bed' proved full of gold and precious stones; and 'what was under the side of the cave' he found to be a great ship, with oars and sails that went of itself as well on land as in the water.'You are the luckiest man that ever was born,' said the ogress as she went out of the cave as usual.
With much difficulty the youth put the heavy chest on his shoulders and carried it on board the ship, the princess walking by his side.
Then he took the helm and steered the vessel back to her father's kingdom.The king's joy at receiving back his lost daughter was so great that he almost fainted, but when he recovered himself he made the young man tell him how everything had really happened.
'You have found her, and you shall marry her,' said the king; and so it was done.And this is the end of the story.
[From Ungarische Mahrchen.]
