The Juniper Tree and Other Tales Read Online Free

thought he would like to play too, and asked, “Hey there, you, can I join in?”
    “Yes, if you have any money.”
    “Oh, I have enough money,” said the boy, “but your balls aren’t really round.” So he took the skulls, put them on the lathe and turned them until they were round as balls. “There, now they’ll roll better,” he said, “so off we go!”
    He played skittles with the men, and lost some of his money to them, but when midnight struck they and their skittles disappeared. Then he lay down and went to sleep.
    Next morning the King came to see how he was. “Well, what happened this time?” he asked.
    “I played a game of skittles,” said the boy, “and I lost a little money.”
    “Didn’t you shudder with fear, then?”
    “No,” said the boy, “it was good fun. Oh, if only I knew what it was like to shudder with fear!”
    On the third night he sat down on his bench once more and said very sadly, “Oh, if only I knew what fear is!” As time went on, six tall men came in carrying a coffin on a stretcher. “My word,” said the boy, “that must be my cousin who died only a couple of days ago.” And he beckoned to the coffin and said, “Come over here, cousin, come over here!”
    The men put the coffin down, and he went over and lifted the lid. There was a dead man lying inside it. The boy felt the corpse’s face, and it was cold as ice. “Wait a minute,” he said. “I’ll warm you up a bit.” And he went over to the fire, warmed his own hand and laid it on thedead man’s face, but the corpse was still cold. So he took the body out of the coffin, held it on his lap and rubbed its arms to get the blood circulating again. When that didn’t help either, it occurred to him that two people can warm each other up by lying in bed together. So he put the corpse in the bed, covered it up and lay down beside it. After a while the dead man warmed up and began to move.
    “There now, cousin,” said the boy, “didn’t I get you nice and warm?”
    But the dead man stood up and said, “Now I’m going to strangle you!”
    “Is that all the thanks I get?” said the boy. “Right, back you go into your coffin.” And he picked the dead man up, threw him into the coffin and closed the lid. The six men came back and carried it away again.
    “I just can’t seem to shudder,” said the boy. “I’ll never learn what fear is here.”
    Then a man came in who looked larger and more terrible than all the others. He was old, with a long white beard. “Now, you wretch,” said the man, “now you’ll learn what fear is, for you are about to die!”
    “Not so fast,” said the boy. “If I’m about to die I ought to know more about it.”
    “Just wait till I catch hold of you,” said the monster.
    “Gently, gently, take it easy. I’m as strong as you and even stronger.”
    “We’ll see about that,” said the old man. “If you turn out to be stronger than me then I’ll let you go.” And he led him along dark passageways to a forge where a fire was burning, picked up an axe and struck one of the two anvils in the forge so hard that it went right down into the ground.
    “I can do better than that,” said the boy, going over to the other anvil. The old man stood behind him to watch, with his white beard hanging down. The boy picked up the axe, split the anvil with a single blow and caught and wedged the old man’s beard in it. “Now I have you where I want you,” said the boy, “and you’re the one about to die.”
    With these words he picked up an iron bar and beat the old man until he was whimpering and begging him to stop, promising him great riches in return.
    The boy took the axe out of the anvil and let him go. Then the old man led him back into the castle and showed him three chests full of gold in a cellar. “One of these is for the poor,” he said, “the second is for the King, and the third is for you.”
    At that moment midnight struck and the spirit disappeared, leaving