DANISH FAIRY AND FOLK TALES
small sledge after her. She stopped and asked him for a bite of bread and a penny. Peter answered, however, that he had no more of each than he would need in the long voyage before him. "Your voyage may be an unhappy one," said the woman. But Peter did not listen to her; he went on, announced himself at the royal palace, and was ushered into the presence of the king and the princess. He now began singing the funniest songs ever heard—this was the art in which he trusted—and one after another he sang the most amusing airs, but with no effect; the princess remained gloomy as ever. Peter was accordingly dipped in tar, rolled in feathers, and dismissed from the palace. His mother used a whole barrel of butter in removing all the tar from him.
If Peter did not succeed, Paul might have better fortune, at least he thought so, and wished to try. He, too, received a good-sized knapsack and a purse; and he, too, met the old woman, who asked for a bite of bread and a penny. But as he also refused to help her, she left him saying that his journey might not bring him happiness. When Paul was called into the presence of the king and the princess, he tried his art, which was to tell the funniest stories anybody had ever heard, and with which he had amused many other persons. He did his best; both he and the king laughed heartily, but the princess only yawned. So he met Peter's fate and returned home in a miserable condition.
6
