accomplished Swineherd! Listen! Go down and ask him what the instrument costs.’
And one of the ladies-in-waiting had to go down; but she put on wooden clogs. ‘What will you take for the pot?’ asked the lady-in-waiting.
‘I will have ten kisses from the Princess, answered the Swineherd.
‘Heaven forbid!’ said the lady-in-waiting.
‘Yes, I will sell it for nothing less,’ replied the Swineherd.
‘Well, what does he say?’ asked the Princess.
‘I really hardly like to tell you,’ answered the lady-in-waiting.
‘Oh, then you can whisper it to me.’
‘He is disobliging!’ said the Princess, and went away. But she had only gone a few steps when the bells rang out so prettily—
Alas! he’s not here, here, here.’
‘Listen!’ said the Princess. ‘Ask him whether he will take ten kisses from my ladies-in-waiting.’
‘No, thank you,’ said the Swineherd. ‘Ten kisses from the Princess, or else I keep my pot.’
‘That is very tiresome!’ said the Princess. ‘But you must put yourselves in front of me, so that no one can see.’
And the ladies-in-waiting placed themselves in front and then spread out their dresses; so the Swineherd got his ten kisses, and she got the pot.
What happiness that was! The whole night and the whole day the pot was made to boil; there was not a fire-place in the whole town where they did not know what was being cooked, whether it was at the chancellor’s or at the shoemaker’s.
The ladies-in-waiting danced and clapped their hands.
‘We know who is going to have soup and pancakes; we know who is going to have porridge and sausages—isn’t it interesting?’
‘Yes, very interesting!’ said the first lady-in-waiting.
‘But don’t say anything about it, for I am the Emperor’s daughter.’
‘Oh, no, of course we won’t!’ said everyone.
The Swineherd—that is to say, the Prince (though they did not know he was anything but a true Swineherd)—let no day pass without making something, and one day he made a rattle which, when
