Once upon a time there was an old king who had three sons; and the old king fell very sick one time and there was nothing at all could make him well but some golden apples from a far country. So the three brothers went on horseback to look for some of these apples. They set off together, and when they came to cross-roads they halted and refreshed themselves a bit; and then they agreed to meet on a certain time, and not one was to go home before the other. So Valentine took the right, and Oliver went straight on, and poor Jack took the left.

To make my long story short, I shall follow poor Jack, and let the other two take their chance, for I don’t think there was much good in them. Off poor Jack rides over hills, dales, valleys, and mountains, through woolly woods and sheepwalks, where the old chap never sounded his hollow bugle-horn, farther than I can tell you to-night or ever intend to tell you.

At last he came to an old house, near a great forest, and there was an old man sitting out by the door, and his look was enough to frighten you or any one else; and the old man said to him:

“Good morning, my king’s son.”

“Good morning to you, old gentleman,” was the young prince’s answer; frightened out of his wits though he was, he didn’t like to give in.

The old gentleman told him to dismount and to go in to have some refreshment, and to put his horse in the stable, such as it was. Jack soon felt much better after having something to eat, and began to ask the old gentleman how he knew he was a king’s son.

“Oh dear!” said the old man, “I knew that you were a king’s son, and I know what is your business better than what you do yourself. So you will have to stay here to-night; and when you are in bed you mustn’t be frightened whatever you may hear. There will come all manner of frogs and snakes, and some will try to get into your eyes and your mouth, but mind, don’t stir the least bit or you will turn into one of those things yourself.”

Poor Jack didn’t know what to make of this, but, however, he ventured to go to bed. Just as he thought to have a bit of sleep, round and over and under him they came, but he never stirred an inch all night.

“Well, my young son, how are you this morning?”

“Oh, I am very well, thank you, but I didn’t have much rest.”

“Well, never mind that; you have got on very well so far, but you have a great deal to go through before you can have the golden apples to go to your father. You’d better come and have some breakfast before you start on your way to my other brother’s house. You will have to leave your own horse here with me until you come back again, and tell me everything about how you get on.”

After that out came a fresh horse for the young prince, and the old man gave him a ball of yarn, and he flung it between the horse’s two ears.

Off he went as fast as the wind, which the wind behind could not catch the wind before, until he came to the second oldest brother’s house. When he rode up to the door he had the same salute as from the first old man, but this one was even uglier than the first one. He had long grey hair, and his teeth were curling out of his mouth, and his finger- and toe-nails had not been cut for many thousand years. He put the horse into a much better stable, and called Jack in, and gave him plenty to eat and drink, and they had a bit of a chat before they went to bed.

“Well, my young son,” said the old man, “I suppose you are one of the king’s children come to look for the golden apples to bring him back to health.”

“Yes, I am the youngest of the three brothers, and I should like to get them to go back with.”

“Well, don’t mind, my young son. Before you go to bed to-night I will send to my eldest brother, and will tell him what you want, and he won’t have much trouble in sending you on to the place where you must get the apples. But mind not to stir to-night no matter how you get bitten and stung, or else you will work great mischief to yourself.”

The young man went to bed and bore all, as he did the first night, and got up the next morning well and hearty. After a good breakfast out comes a fresh horse, and a ball of yarn to throw between his ears. The old man told him to jump up quick, and said that he had made it all right with his eldest brother, not to delay for anything whatever, “For,” said he, “you have a good deal to go through with in a very short and quick time.”

He flung the ball, and off he goes as quick as lightning, and comes to the eldest brother’s house. The old man receives him very kindly and told him he long wished to see him, and that he would go through his work like a man and come back safe and sound. “To-night,” said he, “I will give you rest; there shall nothing come to disturb you, so that you may not feel sleepy for to-morrow. And you must mind to get up middling early, for you’ve got to go and come all in the same day; there will be no place for you to rest within thousands of miles of that place; and if there was, you would stand in great danger never to come from there in your own form. Now, my young prince, mind what I tell you. To-morrow, when you come in sight of a very large castle, which will be surrounded with black water, the first thing you will do you will tie your horse to a tree, and you will see three beautiful swans in sight, and you will say, ’Swan, swan, carry me over in the name of the Griffin of the Greenwood,’ and the swans will swim you over to the earth. There will be three great entrances, the first guarded by four great giants with drawn swords in their hands, the second by lions, the other by fiery serpents and dragons. You will have to be there exactly at one o’clock; and mind and leave there precisely at two and not a moment later. When the swans carry you over to the castle, you will pass all these things, all fast asleep, but you must not notice any of them.

When you go in, you will turn up to the right; you will see some grand rooms, then you will go downstairs through the cooking kitchen, and through; a door on your left you go into a garden, where you will find the apples you want for your father to get well. After you fill your wallet, you make all speed you possibly can, and call out for the swans to carry you over the same as before. After you get on your horse, should you hear anything shouting or making any noise after you, be sure not to look back, as they will follow you for thousands of miles; but when the time is up and you get near my place, it will be all over. Well now, my young man, I have told you all you have to do to-morrow; and mind, whatever you do, don’t look about you when you see all those frightful things asleep. Keep a good heart, and make haste from there, and come back to me with all the speed you can. I should like to know how my two brothers were when you left them, and what they said to you about me.”

“Well, to tell the truth, before I left London my father was sick, and said I was to come here to look for the golden apples, for they were the only things that would do him good; and when I came to your youngest brother, he told me many things I had to do before I came here. And I thought once that your youngest brother put me in the wrong bed, when he put all those snakes to bite me all night long, until your second brother told me ’So it was to be,’ and said, ’It is the same here,’ but said you had none in your beds.”

“Well, let’s go to bed. You need not fear. There are no snakes here.”

The young man went to bed, and had a good night’s rest, and got up the next morning as fresh as newly caught trout. Breakfast being over, out comes the other horse, and, while saddling and fettling, the old man began to laugh, and told the young gentleman that if he saw a pretty young lady, not to stay with her too long, because she might waken, and then he would have to stay with her or to be turned into one of those unearthly monsters, like those he would have to pass by going into the castle.