第5章 Lucky Luck(2)

'Indeed, sire,' said the prince, 'I was myself much annoyed at their destruction; but my servant had begged to direct everything on the journey and I had promised him that he should do so.He declared that we could not possibly get home safely unless I did as he told me.'

The old king fell into a tremendous rage.He called his Council together and condemned the servant to death.

The gallows was put up in the square in front of the palace.The servant was led out and his sentence read to him.

The rope was being placed round his neck, when he begged to be allowed a few last words.'On our journey home,' he said, 'we spent the first night at an inn.I did not sleep but kept watch all night.'

And then he went on to tell what the crows had said, and as he spoke he turned to stone up to his knees.The prince called to him to say no more as he had proved his innocence.But the servant paid no heed to him, and by the time his story was done he had turned to stone from head to foot.

Oh! how grieved the prince was to lose his faithful servant! And what pained him most was the thought that he was lost through his very faithfulness, and he determined to travel all over the world and never rest till he found some means of restoring him to life.

Now there lived at Court an old woman who had been the prince's nurse.To her he confided all his plans, and left his wife, the princess, in her care.'You have a long way before you, my son,'

said the old woman; 'you must never return till you have met with Lucky Luck.If he cannot help you no one on earth can.'

So the prince set off to try to find Lucky Luck.He walked and walked till he got beyond his own country, and he wandered through a wood for three days but did not meet a living being in it.

At the end of the third day he came to a river near which stood a large mill.Here he spent the night.When he was leaving next morning the miller asked him: 'My gracious lord, where are you going all alone?'

And the prince told him.

'Then I beg your Highness to ask Lucky Luck this question: Why is it that though I have an excellent mill, with all its machinery complete, and get plenty of grain to grind, I am so poor that Ihardly know how to live from one day to another?'

The prince promised to inquire, and went on his way.He wandered about for three days more, and at the end of the third day saw a little town.It was quite late when he reached it, but he could discover no light anywhere, and walked almost right through it without finding a house where he could turn in.But far away at the end of the town he saw a light in a window.He went straight to it and in the house were three girls playing a game together.The prince asked for a night's lodging and they took him in, gave him some supper and got a room ready for him, where he slept.

Next morning when he was leaving they asked where he was going and he told them his story.'Gracious prince,' said the maidens, 'do ask Lucky Luck how it happens that here we are over thirty years old and no lover has come to woo us, though we are good, pretty, and very industrious.'

The prince promised to inquire, and went on his way.

Then he came to a great forest and wandered about in it from morning to night and from night to morning before he got near the other end.Here he found a pretty stream which was different from other streams as, instead of flowing, it stood still and began to talk:

'Sir prince, tell me what brings you into these wilds? I must have been flowing here a hundred years and more and no one has ever yet come by.'

'I will tell you,' answered the prince, 'if you will divide yourself so that I may walk through.'

The stream parted at once, and the prince walked through without wetting his feet; and directly he got to the other side he told his story as he had promised.

'Oh, do ask Lucky Luck,' cried the brook, 'why, though I am such a clear, bright, rapid stream I never have a fish or any other living creature in my waters.'

The prince said he would do so, and continued his journey.

When he got quite clear of the forest he walked on through a lovely valley till he reached a little house thatched with rushes, and he went in to rest for he was very tired.