The Two Brotherspage 11 / 20
Nevertheless the huntsman was very sad at heart, as he travelled about with his animals, and let them dance before the people. Now it came to pass that a year had just elapsed when he found himself once more in the same town in which the king lived, whose daughter he had rescued from the dragon, but this time the town was hung with scarlet.
"What is the meaning of this?" he asked the innkeeper; "a year ago when I was here the town was everywhere hung with black, why is it decked out to-day with scarlet?"
"It is just a year ago," replied the innkeeper, "that the king's daughter was rescued from the dragon by the marshal, who fought with it and killed it, and to-morrow their marriage is to be celebrated; that is the reason that the town was then full of mourning, but to-day is full of rejoicing."
The day following, which was the one fixed for the marriage, as the hour for the midday meal drew near, the huntsman said to the innkeeper, "Will you believe me if I tell you that I shall eat some of the bread from the king's table in your house to-day?"
"I will sooner wager a hundred gold pieces that such a thing will not happen," answered the innkeeper. The huntsman accepted the wager, and put down another hundred gold pieces out of his purse. Then he called the hare and said to her, "Go, my dear little nimble one, and fetch me some of the bread that the king himself eats."
The hare was the least important of the animals, and could not therefore ask one of the others to take her place, so she had to make use of her own legs and do the business herself. "Ah!" she thought with a shudder, "when I go jumping along the streets all by myself, the butchers' dogs will be after me."
It happened as she had anticipated, for the dogs ran after her, and wanted to tear her pretty coat; but she gave a leap—you know how they do it—and hid herself in a sentry-box, unseen by the soldier on guard; so when the dogs followed her up to try and get her out, he did not see the joke of it, and drove them all off, crying and howling, with the butt end of his rifle.