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put your hand in it, your fortune would be made.' 'Very true: but how
is that to be managed?' 'How? Why, you must turn grinder like myself,'
said the other; 'you only want a grindstone; the rest will come of
itself. Here is one that is but little the worse for wear: I would not
ask more than the value of your goose for it--will you buy?' 'How can
you ask?' said Hans; 'I should be the happiest man in the world, if I
could have money whenever I put my hand in my pocket: what could I
want more? there's the goose.' 'Now,' said the grinder, as he gave him
a common rough stone that lay by his side, 'this is a most capital
stone; do but work it well enough, and you can make an old nail cut
with it.'

Hans took the stone, and went his way with a light heart: his eyes
sparkled for joy, and he said to himself, 'Surely I must have been
born in a lucky hour; everything I could want or wish for comes of
itself. People are so kind; they seem really to think I do them a
favour in letting them make me rich, and giving me good bargains.'

Meantime he began to be tired, and hungry too, for he had given away
his last penny in his joy at getting the cow.

At last he could go no farther, for the stone tired him sadly: and he
dragged himself to the side of a river, that he might take a drink of
water, and rest a while. So he laid the stone carefully by his side on
the bank: but, as he stooped down to drink, he forgot it, pushed it a
little, and down it rolled, plump into the stream.

For a while he watched it sinking in the deep clear water; then sprang
up and danced for joy, and again fell upon his knees and thanked
Heaven, with tears in his eyes, for its kindness in taking away his
only plague, the ugly heavy stone.

'How happy am I!' cried he; 'nobody was ever so lucky as I.' Then up
he got with a light heart, free from all his troubles, and walked on
till he reached his mother's house, and told her how very easy the
road to good luck was.



JORINDA AND JORINDEL

There was once an old castle, that stood in the middle of a deep
gloomy wood, and in the castle lived an old fairy. Now this fairy
could take any shape she pleased. All the day long she flew about in
the form of an owl, or crept about the country like a cat; but at
night she always became an old woman again. When any young man came
within a hundred paces of her castle, he became quite fixed, and could
not move a step till she came and set him free; which she would not do
till he had given her his word never to come there again: but when any
pretty maiden came within that space she was changed into a bird, and
the fairy put her into a cage, and hung her up in a chamber in the
castle. There were seven hundred of these cages hanging in the castle,
and all with beautiful birds in them.

Now there was once a maiden whose name was Jorinda. She was prettier
than all the pretty girls that ever were seen before, and a shepherd
lad, whose name was Jorindel, was very fond of her, and they were soon

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