smart and light on his legs; in fact he ought to fly about faster than a piece of dried skin or a bird's wing.
Well, that might be, said Ashiepattle, but for all that he would go to the palace and serve the king; he couldn't think of serving any man less than a king. He would look after the hares, he said; they couldn't be much worse than the goat and the calf he had to mind at home. So Ashiepattle took his bag on his back and trudged down the hill.
When he had gone a good bit of the way, he began to feel very hungry, but just then he came up to the old woman, who was standing with her nose in the block, tugging and pulling away at it to get loose.
"Good day, old mother," said Ashiepattle; are you standing there sharpening your nose, you poor old soul?"
"I haven't heard anybody call me mother for a hundred years," said the old woman; "come and help me out of this, and give me something to eat; I haven't had food in my mouth all this time. I'll be as good as a mother to you, if you do!"
Well yes, he thought she would want both meat and drink in that case, said Ashiepattle.
So he took the axe and split the block for her, and then she got her nose out of the cleft. He sat down to eat and shared his food with her, but the old woman had a splendid appetite, as you may guess, and finished the best part of it.
When they had done, she gave Ashiepattle a whistle, and told him how to use it. If he blew into the one end of it, everything which he wished far away would be scattered to all sides, but if he blew into the other end it would all come together again; and if the whistle were lost or was taken from him, he had only to wish for it and it would come back to him. That is something like a whistle, thought Ashiepattle.
When he came to the king's palace, he was taken into service at once, as they made little or no difficulty about that. He was to have both food and wages, and if he could look after the king's hares, so none were lost, he should have the princess as well, but if any got away, if it only were one of the youngest hares, they
