his elder brother and more besides, but there was no help for it, he must and would go. It fared, however, no better with him than with Peter. The old woman stood there and tugged and pulled away at her nose, which stuck in the block, but Paul only laughed and thought it was great fun, and left her standing there. He got the place at once, there was no difficulty about that; but the hares ran away from him amongst the hills, although he ran and rushed about after them till he blew and panted like a sheepdog in the sunshine, When he came back to the palace in the evening without the hares, the king was waiting on the steps with the knife in his hand, and cut three broad red stripes out of his back,
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put pepper and salt into them, and then away to the snake-pit with him.
Well, when some time had passed, Ashiepattle wanted to set out for the king's palace and watch his hares. He told his father, and said it would be just suitable work for him to run about fields and woods amongst the strawberry hills after a flock of hares, and now and then lie down and take a nap on some sunny hill.
The old man thought he no doubt could find some more suitable work to do, but if he did not fare better, he could not fare worse than his brothers. He that would watch the king's hares must not drag himself along as if he was a lazybones with soles of lead to his boots, or like a fly on a tar-brush, for when the hares began to scamper about on the hill-sides it was quite another dance than lying at home and catching fleas with mittens on. He that wanted to get away from that work with a whole back would have to be
