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Updated: June 25, 2025
'God grant, then', said the Mastermaid, 'that you may hold the door, and the door you, and that you may go from wall to wall till day dawns. So you may fancy what a dance the Attorney had all night long; such a waltz he never had before, and I don't think he would much care if he never had such a waltz again.
'Easy master, indeed! said the Prince. 'You may be easy, but you set me hard tasks all the same. But I may as well see if I can find your Mastermaid, as you call her. I daresay she'll tell me what to do'; and so in he went to her again. So when the Mastermaid asked what the Giant had set him to do that day, he told her how he was to go to Hell and fetch the fire-tax.
The Law, too, as represented by those awful personages the Constable, the Attorney, and the Sheriff in 'The Mastermaid', No. xi, is held up to ridicule, and treated with anything but tenderness. But there is one profession for which a good word is said, a single word, but enough to show the feeling of the people.
So at last the Mastermaid was forced to let him have his way; she only said: 'Now, when you get home, don't stop so much as to say good day to any one, but go straight to the stable and put to the horses, and drive back as quick as you can; for they will all come about you; but do as though you did not see them; and above all things, mind you do not taste a morsel of food, for if you do, we shall both come to grief.
'Mastermaid! said the Prince, who looked as stupid as an owl, 'what sort of thing is that, master? I'd be very glad to see it. 'Well, well! said the Giant; 'you'll see her soon enough'. Next day the Giant set off with his goats again, and before he went he told the Prince to fetch home his horse, which was out at grass on the hill-side, and when he had done that he might rest all the day.
So he went on his way, and did just as the Mastermaid had told him; and when he reached the rock, he took up the club and gave a great thump. Then the rock opened, and out came one whose face glistened, and out of whose eyes and nostrils flew sparks of fire. 'What is your will? said he. 'Oh! I'm only come from the Giant to fetch his fire-tax', said the Prince.
'Never mind! cried the Giant; 'there's a cure for this too. So he called on his hill-borer to come and bore through the mountain, that the stream-sucker might creep through and take another swill; but just as they had made a hole through the hill, and the stream-sucker was about to drink, the Mastermaid told the Prince to throw overboard a drop or two out of the flask, and then the sea was just as full as ever, and before the stream-sucker could take another gulp, they reached the land and were saved from the Giant.
'Well, I am holding it now', said the Constable. Then the Mastermaid said: 'God grant that you may hold the shovel, and the shovel you, and may you heap hot burning coals over yourself till morning breaks.
So the Mastermaid took a knife and cut the Prince in his little finger, and let three drops of blood fall on a three-legged stool; and after that she took all the old rags, and soles of shoes, and all the rubbish she could lay hands on, and put them into the pot; and then she filled a chest full of ground gold, and took a lump of salt, and a flask of water that hung behind the door, and she took, besides, a golden apple, and two golden chickens, and off she set with the Prince from the Giant's house as fast as they could; and when they had gone a little way, they came to the sea, and after that they sailed over the sea; but where they got the ship from, I have never heard tell.
'Well, but have you much money? asked the Mastermaid. Yes, for that matter, he said, he was not so badly off, and off he went home to fetch the money, and when he came back at even he brought a half-bushel sack, and set it down on the bench.
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