Man.‘ But it will be a bad business for you if it comes out.’
As the clock struck twelve, the door sprang open, and the Little Man bore the Maiden in.
‘Ah ha! There you are!’ cried the Soldier. ‘Set about your work at once. Fetch the broom and sweep the floor.’
When she had finished, he sat down and ordered her to take his boots off. Then he threw them at her, and made her pick them up and clean them. She did everything he ordered without resistance, silently, and with half-shut eyes.
At the first cock-crow, the Little Man carried her away to the royal palace, and put her back in bed.
In the morning when the Princess got up, she went to her Father, and told him that she had had an extraordinary dream.
‘I was carried through the streets at lightning speed, and taken to the room of a Soldier, whom I had to serve as a maid, and do all kinds of menial work. I had to sweep the room, and clean his boots. Of course, it was only a dream, and yet I am as tired this morning as if I had done it all.’
‘The dream could not have been true,’ said the King. ‘But I will give you a piece of advice. Fill your pocket with peas, and cut a little hole in it, then if you are carried away again, they will drop out and leave a track on the road.’
When the King said this, the Little Man was standing by, invisible, and heard it all.
At night, when he again carried off the Princess, the peas certainly fell out of her pocket, but they were useless to trace her by, for the cunning Little Man had scattered peas all over the streets. Again the Princess had to perform her menial duties till cock-crow.
The next morning the King sent out people who were to find the track; but they were unable to do so, because in every street the poor children were picking up peas, and saying: ‘It must have rained peas in the night.’
‘We must devise a better plan,’ said the King. ‘ Keep your shoes on when you go to bed, and before you come away