GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES - online book

130 Fairy Stories Adapted & Arranged for young people

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	Sot                  THE LITTLE GREY MAN.
	or by sea, because when you thought I was poor, you were kind-hearted, and gave me food and drink." The youth took the ship, and when the king saw it, he was quite surprised, but he could not any longer refuse to give him his daughter in marriage. The wedding was celebrated with great pomp, and after the king's death the simple woodcutter became king over the whole kingdom.
	There once lived a man who was clever in all kinds of trades. He had been a soldier, but when the war was over they discharged him, with the paltry pittance of threepence to help him on his way. " Wait a bit," said he to himself, " this treatment does not please me, and if I can only get the proper people to help me, I will make the king give me all the treasures in his kingdom." So he went first in his vexation into a forest, and there saw a man pull up six trees as if they were blades of grass. He spoke to the man and said: " Will you enter my service, and travel with me ?" "Yes," was the reply, "but I must first carry home to my mother these few faggots of wood." Then he took one of the trees, twisted it like a twig round the other five, lifted them as if they had been a bundle of real faggots on his shoulder, and carried them away. Very soon he returned to his new master, and as they walked on together, he said : " We two shall get on in the world splendidly, I fancy." After a while they came upon a sportsman who was kneeling on one knee, and pointing his loaded gun at some object. "jWhat are you aiming at ?" asked the soldier. " Oh," he replied, " there sits a fly on the branches of an oak two miles off, and I wish to shoot him in the left eye." " Ah," exclaimed the soldier, " you had better come with me; three such as we are will soon make a noise in the world." The sportsman was quite ready to join the party, so the three went on together till they came to seven windmills. The sails