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Title: Grimm's Fairy Tales; The Nose
Date of first publication: 1930
Author: Jacob Grimm (1785-1863)
Author: Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859)
Illustrator: Noel Pocock (1880-1955)
Date first posted: November 7 2012
Date last updated: November 7 2012
Faded Page eBook #20121114

This ebook was produced by: David Edwards, Donna M. Ritchey
& the Online Distributed Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net

(This file was produced from images generously made available by
The Internet Archive/American Libraries).




The Nose


Did you ever hear the story of the three poor soldiers, who, after
having fought hard in the wars, set out on their road home begging their
way as they went?

They had journeyed on a long way, sick at heart with their bad luck at
thus being turned loose on the world in their old days, when one evening
they reached a deep gloomy wood through which they must pass; night came
fast upon them, and they found that they must, however unwillingly,
sleep in the wood; so to make all as safe as they could, it was agreed
that two should lie down and sleep, while a third sat up and watched
lest wild beasts should break in and tear them to pieces; when he was
tired he was to wake one of the others and sleep in his turn, and so on
with the third, so as to share the work fairly among them.

The two who were to rest first soon lay down and fell fast asleep, and
the other made himself a good fire under the trees and sat down by the
side to keep watch. He had not sat long before all on a sudden up came a
little man in a red jacket. "Who's there?" said he. "A friend," said the
soldier. "What sort of a friend?" "An old broken soldier," said the
other, "with his two comrades who have nothing left to live on; come,
sit down and warm yourself." "Well, my worthy fellow," said the little
man, "I will do what I can for you; take this and show it to your
comrades in the morning." So he took out an old cloak and gave it to
the soldier, telling him that whenever he put it over his shoulders
anything that he wished for would be fulfilled; then the little man made
him a bow and walked away.

The second soldier's turn to watch soon came, and the first laid himself
down to sleep; but the second man had not sat by himself long before up
came the little man in the red jacket again. The soldier treated him in
a friendly way as his comrade had done, and the little man gave him a
purse, which he told him was always full of gold, let him draw as much
as he would.

Then the third soldier's turn to watch came, and he also had the little
man for his guest, who gave him a wonderful horn that drew crowds around
it whenever it was played; and made every one forget his business to
come and dance to its beautiful music.

In the morning each told his story and showed his treasure; and as they
all liked each other very much and were old friends, they agreed to
travel together to see the world, and for a while only to make use of
the wonderful purse. And thus they spent their time very joyously, till
at last they began to be tired of this roving life, and thought they
should like to have a home of their own. So the first soldier put his
old cloak on, and wished for a fine castle. In a moment it stood before
their eyes; fine gardens and green lawns spread round it, and flocks of
sheep and goats and herds of oxen were grazing about, and out of the
gate came a fine coach with three dapple gray horses to meet them and
bring them home.

All this was very well for a time; but it would not do to stay at home
always, so they got together all their rich clothes and houses and
servants, and ordered their coach with three horses, and set out on a
journey to see a neighbouring king. Now this king had an only daughter,
and as he took the three soldiers for kings' sons, he gave them a kind
welcome. One day, as the second soldier was walking with the princess,
she saw him with the wonderful purse in his hand; and having asked him
what it was, he was foolish enough to tell her--though indeed it did not
much signify, for she was a witch and knew all the wonderful things that
the three soldiers brought. Now this princess was very cunning and
artful; so she set to work and made a purse so like the soldier's that
no one would know one from the other, and then asked him to come and see
her, and made him drink some wine that she had got ready for him, till
he fell fast asleep. Then she felt in his pocket, and took away the
wonderful purse and left the one she had made in its place.

The next morning the soldiers set out home, and soon after they reached
their castle, happening to want some money, they went to their purse for
it, and found something indeed in it, but to their great sorrow when
they had emptied it, none came in the place of what they took. Then the
cheat was soon found out; for the second soldier knew where he had been,
and how he had told the story to the princess, and he guessed that she
had betrayed him. "Alas!" cried he, "poor wretches that we are, what
shall we do?" "Oh!" said the first soldier, "let no gray hairs grow for
this mishap; I will soon get the purse back." So he threw his cloak
across his shoulders and wished himself in the princess's chamber. There
he found her sitting alone, telling her gold that fell around her in a
shower from the purse. But the soldier stood looking at her too long,
for the moment she saw him she started up and cried out with all her
force, "Thieves! Thieves!" so that the whole court came running in and
tried to seize him. The poor soldier now began to be dreadfully
frightened in his turn, and thought it was high time to make the best of
his way off; so without thinking of the ready way of travelling that
his cloak gave him, he ran to the window, opened it, and jumped out; and
unluckily in his haste his cloak caught and was left hanging, to the
great joy of the princess, who knew its worth.

The poor soldier made the best of his way home to his comrades, on foot
and in a very downcast mood; but the third soldier told him to keep up
his heart, and took his horn and blew a merry tune. At the first blast a
countless troop of foot and horse came rushing to their aid, and they
set out to make war against their enemy. Then the king's palace was
besieged, and he was told that he must give up the purse and cloak, or
that not one stone should be left upon another. And the king went into
his daughter's chamber and talked with her; but she said, "Let me try
first if I cannot beat them some other way." So she thought of a cunning
scheme to overreach them, and dressed herself out as a poor girl with a
basket on her arm; and set out by night with her maid, and went into the
enemy's camp as if she wanted to sell trinkets.

In the morning she began to ramble about, singing ballads so
beautifully, that all the tents were left empty, and the soldiers ran
round in crowds and thought of nothing but hearing her sing. Amongst the
rest came the soldier to whom the horn belonged, and as soon as she saw
him she winked to her maid, who slipped slily through the crowd and went
into his tent where it hung, and stole it away. This done, they both got
safely back to the palace; the besieging army went away, the three
wonderful gifts were all left in the hands of the princess, and the
three soldiers were as penniless and forlorn as when the little man with
the red jacket found them in the wood.

Poor fellows! they began to think what was now to be done. "Comrades,"
at last said the second soldier, who had had the purse, "we had better
part, we cannot live together, let each seek his bread as well as he
can." So he turned to the right, and the other two to the left; for they
said they would rather travel together. Then on he strayed till he came
to a wood; (now this was the same wood where they had met with so much
good luck before;) and he walked on a long time till evening began to
fall, when he sat down tired beneath a tree, and soon fell asleep.

Morning dawned, and he was greatly delighted, at opening his eyes, to
see that the tree was laden with the most beautiful apples. He was
hungry enough, so he soon plucked and ate first one, then a second, then
a third apple. A strange feeling came over his nose: when he put the
apple to his mouth something was in the way; he felt it; it was his
nose, that grew and grew till it hung down to his breast. It did not
stop there, still it grew and grew; "Heavens!" thought he, "when will it
have done growing?" And well might he ask, for by this time it reached
the ground as he sat on the grass, and thus it kept creeping on till he
could not bear its weight, or raise himself up; and it seemed as if it
would never end, for already it stretched its enormous length all
through the wood.

Meantime his comrades were journeying on, till on a sudden one of them
stumbled against something. "What can that be?" said the other. They
looked, and could think of nothing that it was like but a nose. "We will
follow it and find its owner, however," said they; so they traced it up
till at last they found their poor comrade lying stretched along under
the apple tree. What was to be done? They tried to carry him, but in
vain. They caught an ass that was passing by, and raised him upon its
back; but it was soon tired of carrying such a load. So they sat down in
despair, when up came the little man in the red jacket. "Why, how now,
friend?" said he, laughing; "well, I must find a cure for you, I see."
So he told them to gather a pear from a tree that grew close by, and the
nose would come right again. No time was lost, and the nose was soon
brought to its proper size, to the poor soldier's joy.

"I will do something more for you yet," said the little man; "take some
of those pears and apples with you; whoever eats one of the apples will
have his nose grow like yours just now; but if you give him a pear, all
will come right again. Go to the princess and get her to eat some of
your apples; her nose will grow twenty times as long as yours did; then
look sharp, and you will get what you want of her."

Then they thanked their old friend very heartily for all his kindness,
and it was agreed that the poor soldier who had already tried the power
of the apple should undertake the task. So he dressed himself up as a
gardener's boy, and went to the king's palace, and said he had apples to
sell, such as were never seen there before. Every one that saw them was
delighted and wanted to taste, but he said they were only for the
princess; and she soon sent her maid to buy his stock. They were so ripe
and rosy that she soon began eating, and had already eaten three when
she too began to wonder what ailed her nose, for it grew and grew, down
to the ground, out at the window, and over the garden, nobody knows
where.

Then the king made known to all his kingdom, that whoever would heal her
of this dreadful disease should be richly rewarded. Many tried, but the
princess got no relief. And now the old soldier dressed himself up very
sprucely as a doctor, who said he could cure her; so he chopped up some
of the apple, and to punish her a little more gave her a dose, saying he
would call to-morrow and see her again. The morrow came, and of course,
instead of being better, the nose had been growing fast all night, and
the poor princess was in a dreadful fright. So the doctor chopped up a
very little of the pear and gave her, and said he was sure that would do
good, and he would call again the next day. Next day came, and the nose
was to be sure a little smaller, but yet it was bigger than it was when
the doctor first began to meddle with it.

Then he thought to himself, "I must frighten this cunning princess a
little more before I shall get what I want of her;" so he gave her
another dose of the apple, and said he would call on the morrow. The
morrow came, and the nose was ten times as bad as before. "My good
lady," said the doctor; "something works against my medicine, and is too
strong for it; but I know by the force of my art what it is; you have
stolen goods about you, I am sure, and if you do not give them back, I
can do nothing for you." But the princess denied very stoutly that she
had anything of the kind. "Very well," said the doctor, "you may do as
you please, but I am sure I am right, and you will die if you do not own
it." Then he went to the king, and told him how the matter stood.
"Daughter," said he, "send back the cloak, the ring, and the horn, that
you stole from the right owners."

Then she ordered her maid to fetch all three, and gave them to the
doctor, and begged him to give them back to the soldiers; and the moment
he had them safe he gave her a whole pear to eat, and the nose came
right. And as for the doctor, he put on the cloak, wished the king and
all his court a good day, and was soon with his two brothers, who lived
from that time happily at home in their palace, except when they took
airings in their coach with the three dapple gray horses.


[The end of _Grimm's Fairy Tales: The Nose_ by the Brothers Grimm]