Read on line
Listen on line
Main > Fairy tale > All authors > Andrew Lang > Fairy tale "The Seven Foals"

The Seven Foals

When evening was drawing near, the youth wanted to go.

`I may just as well go straight home again,' said he, `for it is no use to go to the King's palace.'

`Wait till it is dusk,' said the old hag, `and then the King's foals will pass by this place again, and you can run home with them; no one will ever know that you have been lying here all day instead of watching the foals.'

So when they came she gave the lad a bottle of water and a bit of moss, and told him to show these to the King and say that this was what his seven foals ate and drank.

`Hast thou watched faithfully and well the whole day long?' said the King, when the lad came into his presence in the evening.

`Yes, that I have!' said the youth.

`Then you are able to tell me what it is that my seven foals eat and drink,' said the King.

So the youth produced the bottle of water and the bit of moss which he had got from the old woman, saying:

`Here you see their meat, and here you see their drink.'

Then the King knew how his watching had been done, and fell into such a rage that he ordered his people to chase the youth back to his own home at once; but first they were to cut three red stripes in his back, and rub salt into them.

When the youth reached home again, anyone can imagine what a state of mind he was in. He had gone out once to seek a place, he said, but never would he do such a thing again.

Next day the second son said that he would now go out into the world to seek his fortune. His father and mother said `No,' and bade him look at his brother's back, but the youth would not give up his design, and stuck to it, and after a long, long time he got leave to go, and set forth on his way. When he had walked all day he too came to the King's palace, and the King was standing outside on the steps, and asked where he was going; and when the youth replied that he was going about in search of a place, the King said that he might enter into his service and watch his seven foals. Then the King promised him the same punishment and the same reward that he had promised his brother.

Also read
Read
The Cripple
Category: Andersen Hans Christian
Read times: 22
Read
Aunty Toothache
Category: Andersen Hans Christian
Read times: 40
Read