A certain king had a beautiful garden, and in the garden stood a treewhich bore golden apples. These apples were always counted, and aboutthe time when they began to grow ripe it was found that every night oneof them was gone. The king became very angry at this, and ordered thegardener to keep watch all night under the tree. The gardener set hiseldest son to watch; but about twelve o'clock he fell asleep, and inthe morning another of the apples was missing. Then the second son wasordered to watch; and at midnight he too fell asleep, and in the morninganother apple was gone. Then the third son offered to keep watch; butthe gardener at first would not let him, for fear some harm should cometo him: however, at last he consented, and the young man laid himselfunder the tree to watch. As the clock struck twelve he heard a rustlingnoise in the air, and a bird came flying that was of pure gold; and asit was snapping at one of the apples with its beak, the gardener's sonjumped up and shot an arrow at it. But the arrow did the bird no harm;only it dropped a golden feather from its tail, and then flew away.The golden feather was brought to the king in the morning, and all thecouncil was called together. Everyone agreed that it was worth more thanall the wealth of the kingdom: but the king said, 'One feather is of nouse to me, I must have the whole bird.'

Then the gardener's eldest son set out and thought to find the goldenbird very easily; and when he had gone but a little way, he came to awood, and by the side of the wood he saw a fox sitting; so he took hisbow and made ready to shoot at it. Then the fox said, 'Do not shoot me,for I will give you good counsel; I know what your business is, andthat you want to find the golden bird. You will reach a village in theevening; and when you get there, you will see two inns opposite to eachother, one of which is very pleasant and beautiful to look at: go not inthere, but rest for the night in the other, though it may appear to youto be very poor and mean.' But the son thought to himself, 'What cansuch a beast as this know about the matter?' So he shot his arrow atthe fox; but he missed it, and it set up its tail above its back andran into the wood. Then he went his way, and in the evening came tothe village where the two inns were; and in one of these were peoplesinging, and dancing, and feasting; but the other looked very dirty,and poor. 'I should be very silly,' said he, 'if I went to that shabbyhouse, and left this charming place'; so he went into the smart house,and ate and drank at his ease, and forgot the bird, and his country too.

Time passed on; and as the eldest son did not come back, and no tidingswere heard of him, the second son set out, and the same thing happenedto him. He met the fox, who gave him the good advice: but when he cameto the two inns, his eldest brother was standing at the window wherethe merrymaking was, and called to him to come in; and he could notwithstand the temptation, but went in, and forgot the golden bird andhis country in the same manner.

Time passed on again, and the youngest son too wished to set out intothe wide world to seek for the golden bird; but his father would notlisten to it for a long while, for he was very fond of his son, andwas afraid that some ill luck might happen to him also, and prevent hiscoming back. However, at last it was agreed he should go, for he wouldnot rest at home; and as he came to the wood, he met the fox, and heardthe same good counsel. But he was thankful to the fox, and did notattempt his life as his brothers had done; so the fox said, 'Sit upon mytail, and you will travel faster.' So he sat down, and the fox began torun, and away they went over stock and stone so quick that their hairwhistled in the wind.

When they came to the village, the son followed the fox's counsel, andwithout looking about him went to the shabby inn and rested there allnight at his ease. In the morning came the fox again and met him as hewas beginning his journey, and said, 'Go straight forward, till you cometo a castle, before which lie a whole troop of soldiers fast asleep andsnoring: take no notice of them, but go into the castle and pass on andon till you come to a room, where the golden bird sits in a wooden cage;close by it stands a beautiful golden cage; but do not try to take thebird out of the shabby cage and put it into the handsome one, otherwiseyou will repent it.' Then the fox stretched out his tail again, and theyoung man sat himself down, and away they went over stock and stone tilltheir hair whistled in the wind.

Before the castle gate all was as the fox had said: so the son went inand found the chamber where the golden bird hung in a wooden cage, andbelow stood the golden cage, and the three golden apples that had beenlost were lying close by it. Then thought he to himself, 'It will be avery droll thing to bring away such a fine bird in this shabby cage'; sohe opened the door and took hold of it and put it into the golden cage.But the bird set up such a loud scream that all the soldiers awoke, andthey took him prisoner and carried him before the king. The next morningthe court sat to judge him; and when all was heard, it sentenced him todie, unless he should bring the king the golden horse which could run asswiftly as the wind; and if he did this, he was to have the golden birdgiven him for his own.

So he set out once more on his journey, sighing, and in great despair,when on a sudden his friend the fox met him, and said, 'You see nowwhat has happened on account of your not listening to my counsel. I willstill, however, tell you how to find the golden horse, if you will do asI bid you. You must go straight on till you come to the castle where thehorse stands in his stall: by his side will lie the groom fast asleepand snoring: take away the horse quietly, but be sure to put the oldleathern saddle upon him, and not the golden one that is close by it.'Then the son sat down on the fox's tail, and away they went over stockand stone till their hair whistled in the wind.

All went right, and the groom lay snoring with his hand upon the goldensaddle. But when the son looked at the horse, he thought it a great pityto put the leathern saddle upon it. 'I will give him the good one,'said he; 'I am sure he deserves it.' As he took up the golden saddle thegroom awoke and cried out so loud, that all the guards ran in and tookhim prisoner, and in the morning he was again brought before the courtto be judged, and was sentenced to die. But it was agreed, that, if hecould bring thither the beautiful princess, he should live, and have thebird and the horse given him for his own.

Then he went his way very sorrowful; but the old fox came and said, 'Whydid not you listen to me? If you had, you would have carried awayboth the bird and the horse; yet will I once more give you counsel. Gostraight on, and in the evening you will arrive at a castle. At twelveo'clock at night the princess goes to the bathing-house: go up to herand give her a kiss, and she will let you lead her away; but take careyou do not suffer her to go and take leave of her father and mother.'Then the fox stretched out his tail, and so away they went over stockand stone till their hair whistled again.

As they came to the castle, all was as the fox had said, and at twelveo'clock the young man met the princess going to the bath and gave her thekiss, and she agreed to run away with him, but begged with many tearsthat he would let her take leave of her father. At first he refused,but she wept still more and more, and fell at his feet, till at lasthe consented; but the moment she came to her father's house the guardsawoke and he was taken prisoner again.

Then he was brought before the king, and the king said, 'You shall neverhave my daughter unless in eight days you dig away the hill that stopsthe view from my window.' Now this hill was so big that the whole worldcould not take it away: and when he had worked for seven days, and haddone very little, the fox came and said. 'Lie down and go to sleep; Iwill work for you.' And in the morning he awoke and the hill was gone;so he went merrily to the king, and told him that now that it wasremoved he must give him the princess.

Then the king was obliged to keep his word, and away went the young manand the princess; and the fox came and said to him, 'We will have allthree, the princess, the horse, and the bird.' 'Ah!' said the young man,'that would be a great thing, but how can you contrive it?'

'If you will only listen,' said the fox, 'it can be done. When you cometo the king, and he asks for the beautiful princess, you must say, "Hereshe is!" Then he will be very joyful; and you will mount the goldenhorse that they are to give you, and put out your hand to take leave ofthem; but shake hands with the princess last. Then lift her quickly onto the horse behind you; clap your spurs to his side, and gallop away asfast as you can.'

All went right: then the fox said, 'When you come to the castle wherethe bird is, I will stay with the princess at the door, and you willride in and speak to the king; and when he sees that it is the righthorse, he will bring out the bird; but you must sit still, and say thatyou want to look at it, to see whether it is the true golden bird; andwhen you get it into your hand, ride away.'

This, too, happened as the fox said; they carried off the bird, theprincess mounted again, and they rode on to a great wood. Then the foxcame, and said, 'Pray kill me, and cut off my head and my feet.' But theyoung man refused to do it: so the fox said, 'I will at any rate giveyou good counsel: beware of two things; ransom no one from the gallows,and sit down by the side of no river.' Then away he went. 'Well,'thought the young man, 'it is no hard matter to keep that advice.'

He rode on with the princess, till at last he came to the village wherehe had left his two brothers. And there he heard a great noise anduproar; and when he asked what was the matter, the people said, 'Two menare going to be hanged.' As he came nearer, he saw that the two men werehis brothers, who had turned robbers; so he said, 'Cannot they in anyway be saved?' But the people said 'No,' unless he would bestow all hismoney upon the rascals and buy their liberty. Then he did not stay tothink about the matter, but paid what was asked, and his brothers weregiven up, and went on with him towards their home.

And as they came to the wood where the fox first met them, it was socool and pleasant that the two brothers said, 'Let us sit down by theside of the river, and rest a while, to eat and drink.' So he said,'Yes,' and forgot the fox's counsel, and sat down on the side of theriver; and while he suspected nothing, they came behind, and threw himdown the bank, and took the princess, the horse, and the bird, and wenthome to the king their master, and said. 'All this have we won by ourlabour.' Then there was great rejoicing made; but the horse would noteat, the bird would not sing, and the princess wept.

The youngest son fell to the bottom of the river's bed: luckily it wasnearly dry, but his bones were almost broken, and the bank was so steepthat he could find no way to get out. Then the old fox came once more,and scolded him for not following his advice; otherwise no evil wouldhave befallen him: 'Yet,' said he, 'I cannot leave you here, so lay holdof my tail and hold fast.' Then he pulled him out of the river, and saidto him, as he got upon the bank, 'Your brothers have set watch to killyou, if they find you in the kingdom.' So he dressed himself as a poorman, and came secretly to the king's court, and was scarcely within thedoors when the horse began to eat, and the bird to sing, and the princessleft off weeping. Then he went to the king, and told him all hisbrothers' roguery; and they were seized and punished, and he had theprincess given to him again; and after the king's death he was heir tohis kingdom.

A long while after, he went to walk one day in the wood, and the old foxmet him, and besought him with tears in his eyes to kill him, and cutoff his head and feet. And at last he did so, and in a moment thefox was changed into a man, and turned out to be the brother of theprincess, who had been lost a great many many years.