Now Jesper had always heard the ants spoken of as clever and industrious little creatures, while he never heard anyone say a good word for the beetles, so he agreed to give the wished-for help. At the first charge he made, the ranks of the beetles broke and fled in dismay, and those escaped best that were nearest a hole, and could get into it before Jesper’s boots came down upon them. In a few minutes the ants had the field all to themselves; and their king made quite an eloquent speech to Jesper, thanking him for the service he had done them, and promising to assist him in any difficulty.
`Just call on me when you want me,’ he said, `where-ever you are. I’m never far away from anywhere, and if I can possibly help you, I shall not fail to do it.’
Jesper was inclined to laugh at this, but he kept a grave face, said he would remember the offer, and
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walked on. At a turn of the road he suddenly came upon the old woman. `Good morning,’ said she; `what have you got in your basket?’
`Pearls,’ said Jesper; `I’m going to the palace to win the princess with them.’ And in case she might not believe him, he lifted the cover and let her see them.
`Beautiful,’ said the old woman; `very beautiful indeed; but they will go a very little way towards winning the princess, unless you can also perform the tasks that are set you. However,’ she said, `I see you have brought something with you to eat. Won’t you give that to me: you are sure to get a good dinner at the palace.’
`Yes, of course,’ said Jesper, `I hadn’t thought of that’; and he handed over the whole of his lunch to the old woman.
He had already taken a few steps on the way again, when the old woman called him back.
`Here,’ she said; `take this whistle in return for your lunch. It isn’t much to look at, but if you blow it, anything that you have lost or that has been taken from you will find its way back to you in a moment.’
Jesper thanked her for the whistle, though he did not see of what use it was to be to him just then, and held on his way to the palace.
When Jesper presented his pearls to the king there were exclamations of wonder and delight from everyone who saw them. It was not pleasant, however, to discover that Jesper was a mere fisher-lad; that wasn’t the kind of son-in-law that the king had expected, and he said so to the queen.
`Never mind,’ said she, `you can easily set him such tasks as he will never be able to perform: we shall soon get rid of him.’
`Yes, of course,’ said the king; `really I forget things nowadays, with all the bustle we have had of late.’
That day Jesper dined with the king and queen and
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their nobles, and at night was put into a bedroom grander than anything of the kind he had ever seen. It was all so new to him that he could not sleep a wink, especially as he was always wondering what kind of tasks would be set him to do, and whether he would be able to perform them. In spite of the softness of the bed, he was very glad when morning came at last.
After breakfast was over, the king said to Jesper, `Just come with me, and I’ll show you what you must do first.’ He led him out to the barn, and there in the middle of the floor was a, large pile of grain. `Here,’ said the king, `you have a mixed heap of wheat, barley, oats, and rye, a sackful of each. By an hour before sunset you must have these sorted out into four heaps, and if a single grain is found to be in a wrong heap you have no further chance of marrying my daughter. I shall lock the door, so that no one can get in to assist you, and I shall return at the appointed time to see how you have succeeded.’
The king walked off, and Jesper looked in despair at the task before him. Then he sat down and tried what he could do at it, but it was soon very clear that single-handed he could never hope to accomplish it in the time. Assistance was out of the question — unless, he suddenly thought — unless the King of the Ants could help. On him he began to call, and before many minutes had passed that royal personage made his appearance. Jesper explained the trouble he was in.
`Is that all?’ said the ant; `we shall soon put that to rights.’ He gave the royal signal, and in a minute or two a stream of ants came pouring into the barn, who under the king’s orders set to work to separate the grain into the proper heaps.
Jesper watched them for a while, but through the continual movement of the little creatures, and his not having slept during the previous night, he soon fell sound asleep. When he woke again, the king had just
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come into the barn, and was amazed to find that not only was the task accomplished, but that Jesper had found time to take a nap as well.
`Wonderful,’ said he; `I couldn’t have believed it possible. However, the hardest is yet to come, as you will see to-morrow.’
Jesper thought so too when the next day’s task was set before him. The king’s gamekeepers had caught a hundred live hares, which were to be let loose in a large meadow, and there Jesper must herd them all day, and bring them safely home in the evening: if even one were missing, he must give up all thought of marrying the princess. Before he had quite grasped the fact that this was an impossible task, the keepers had opened the sacks in which the hares were brought to the field, and, with a whisk of the short tail and a flap of the long ears, each one of the hundred flew in a different direction.
`Now,’ said the king, `as he walked away, `let’s see what your cleverness can do here.’
Jesper stared round him in bewilderment, and having nothing better to do with his hands, thrust them into his pockets, as he was in the habit of doing. Here he found something which turned out to be the whistle given to him by the old woman. He remembered what she had said about the virtues of the whistle, but was rather doubtful whether its powers would extend to a hundred hares, each of which had gone in a different direction and might be several miles distant by this time. However, he blew the whistle, and in a few minutes the hares came bounding through the hedge on all the four sides of the field, and before long were all sitting round him in a circle. After that, Jesper allowed them to run about as they pleased, so long as they stayed in the field.
The king had told one of the keepers to hang about for a little and see what became of Jesper, not doubting, however, that as soon as he saw the coast clear he would use his legs to the best advantage, and never show face at
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the palace again. It was therefore with great surprise and annoyance that he now learned of the mysterious return of the hares and the likelihood of Jesper carrying out his task with success.
`One of them must be got out of his hands by hook or crook,’ said he. `I’ll go and see the queen about it; she’s good at devising plans.’
A little later, a girl in a shabby dress came into the field and walked up to Jesper.
`Do give me one of those hares,’ she said; `we have just got visitors who are going to stay to dinner, and there’s nothing we can give them to eat.’
`I can’t,’ said Jesper. `For one thing, they’re not mine; for another, a great deal depends on my having them all here in the evening.’
But the girl (and she was a very pretty girl, though so shabbily dressed) begged so hard for one of them that at last he said:
`Very well; give me a kiss and you shall have one of them.’
He could see that she didn’t quite care for this, but she consented to the bargain, and gave him the kiss, and went away with a hare in her apron. Scarcely had she got outside the field, however, when Jesper blew his whistle, and immediately the hare wriggled out of its prison like an eel, and went back to its master at the top of its speed.