very fond of you!" he said, "we might still have kept together for a long time, and now I am going to lose you already! Poor, dear Johannes! I could almost cry, but I will not disturb your happiness on the last evening, perhaps, we are to be together. We will be merry, quite merry! Tomorrow when you are gone, I can cry!"
All the people in the city had soon got to know that a new suitor for the princess's hand had arrived, and there was therefore great sorrow among
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THE TRAVELING COMPANION FLEW BEHIND THE PRINCESS AND KEPT ON WHIPPING HER WITH HIS ROD.
them. The playhouse was closed, all the women who sold cakes and
sweets in the streets tied black crape round their sugar-pigs, and the king and the parsons lay on their knees in the church ; there was such lamentation, for Johannes would surely not fare better than all the other suitors.
In the evening the traveling companion brewed a large bowl of punch and told Johannes that now they were going to be really merry and drink the health of the princess. But when Johannes had drunk two glasses, he became so sleepy that it was not possible for him to keep his eyes open, and at last he fell asleep. His companion then lifted him quite gently from the chair and laid him on the bed, and when it was quite dark he
