As a merry young huntsman was once going briskly along through a wood,there came up a little old woman, and said to him, 'Good day, good day;you seem merry enough, but I am hungry and thirsty; do pray give mesomething to eat.' The huntsman took pity on her, and put his hand inhis pocket and gave her what he had. Then he wanted to go his way; butshe took hold of him, and said, 'Listen, my friend, to what I am goingto tell you; I will reward you for your kindness; go your way, and aftera little time you will come to a tree where you will see nine birdssitting on a cloak. Shoot into the midst of them, and one will fall downdead: the cloak will fall too; take it, it is a wishing-cloak, and whenyou wear it you will find yourself at any place where you may wish tobe. Cut open the dead bird, take out its heart and keep it, and you willfind a piece of gold under your pillow every morning when you rise. Itis the bird's heart that will bring you this good luck.'

The huntsman thanked her, and thought to himself, 'If all this doeshappen, it will be a fine thing for me.' When he had gone a hundredsteps or so, he heard a screaming and chirping in the branches over him,and looked up and saw a flock of birds pulling a cloak with their billsand feet; screaming, fighting, and tugging at each other as ifeach wished to have it himself. 'Well,' said the huntsman, 'this iswonderful; this happens just as the old woman said'; then he shot intothe midst of them so that their feathers flew all about. Off went theflock chattering away; but one fell down dead, and the cloak with it.Then the huntsman did as the old woman told him, cut open the bird, tookout the heart, and carried the cloak home with him.

The next morning when he awoke he lifted up his pillow, and there laythe piece of gold glittering underneath; the same happened next day, andindeed every day when he arose. He heaped up a great deal of gold, andat last thought to himself, 'Of what use is this gold to me whilst I amat home? I will go out into the world and look about me.'

Then he took leave of his friends, and hung his bag and bow about hisneck, and went his way. It so happened that his road one day led througha thick wood, at the end of which was a large castle in a green meadow,and at one of the windows stood an old woman with a very beautiful younglady by her side looking about them. Now the old woman was a witch, andsaid to the young lady, 'There is a young man coming out of the wood whocarries a wonderful prize; we must get it away from him, my dear child,for it is more fit for us than for him. He has a bird's heart thatbrings a piece of gold under his pillow every morning.' Meantime thehuntsman came nearer and looked at the lady, and said to himself, 'Ihave been travelling so long that I should like to go into this castleand rest myself, for I have money enough to pay for anything I want';but the real reason was, that he wanted to see more of the beautifullady. Then he went into the house, and was welcomed kindly; and it wasnot long before he was so much in love that he thought of nothing elsebut looking at the lady's eyes, and doing everything that she wished.Then the old woman said, 'Now is the time for getting the bird's heart.'So the lady stole it away, and he never found any more gold under hispillow, for it lay now under the young lady's, and the old woman took itaway every morning; but he was so much in love that he never missed hisprize.

'Well,' said the old witch, 'we have got the bird's heart, but not thewishing-cloak yet, and that we must also get.' 'Let us leave him that,'said the young lady; 'he has already lost his wealth.' Then the witchwas very angry, and said, 'Such a cloak is a very rare and wonderfulthing, and I must and will have it.' So she did as the old woman toldher, and set herself at the window, and looked about the country andseemed very sorrowful; then the huntsman said, 'What makes you so sad?''Alas! dear sir,' said she, 'yonder lies the granite rock where all thecostly diamonds grow, and I want so much to go there, that whenever Ithink of it I cannot help being sorrowful, for who can reach it? onlythe birds and the flies--man cannot.' 'If that's all your grief,' saidthe huntsman, 'I'll take you there with all my heart'; so he drew her underhis cloak, and the moment he wished to be on the granite mountain theywere both there. The diamonds glittered so on all sides that they weredelighted with the sight and picked up the finest. But the old witchmade a deep sleep come upon him, and he said to the young lady, 'Let ussit down and rest ourselves a little, I am so tired that I cannot standany longer.' So they sat down, and he laid his head in her lap andfell asleep; and whilst he was sleeping on she took the cloak fromhis shoulders, hung it on her own, picked up the diamonds, and wishedherself home again.

When he awoke and found that his lady had tricked him, and left himalone on the wild rock, he said, 'Alas! what roguery there is in theworld!' and there he sat in great grief and fear, not knowing what todo. Now this rock belonged to fierce giants who lived upon it; and ashe saw three of them striding about, he thought to himself, 'I can onlysave myself by feigning to be asleep'; so he laid himself down as if hewere in a sound sleep. When the giants came up to him, the first pushedhim with his foot, and said, 'What worm is this that lies here curledup?' 'Tread upon him and kill him,' said the second. 'It's not worth thetrouble,' said the third; 'let him live, he'll go climbing higher up themountain, and some cloud will come rolling and carry him away.' And theypassed on. But the huntsman had heard all they said; and as soon as theywere gone, he climbed to the top of the mountain, and when he had satthere a short time a cloud came rolling around him, and caught him in awhirlwind and bore him along for some time, till it settled in a garden,and he fell quite gently to the ground amongst the greens and cabbages.

Then he looked around him, and said, 'I wish I had something to eat, ifnot I shall be worse off than before; for here I see neither applesnor pears, nor any kind of fruits, nothing but vegetables.' At last hethought to himself, 'I can eat salad, it will refresh and strengthenme.' So he picked out a fine head and ate of it; but scarcely had heswallowed two bites when he felt himself quite changed, and saw withhorror that he was turned into an ass. However, he still felt veryhungry, and the salad tasted very nice; so he ate on till he cameto another kind of salad, and scarcely had he tasted it when he feltanother change come over him, and soon saw that he was lucky enough tohave found his old shape again.

Then he laid himself down and slept off a little of his weariness; andwhen he awoke the next morning he broke off a head both of the good andthe bad salad, and thought to himself, 'This will help me to my fortuneagain, and enable me to pay off some folks for their treachery.' So hewent away to try and find the castle of his friends; and after wanderingabout a few days he luckily found it. Then he stained his face all overbrown, so that even his mother would not have known him, and went intothe castle and asked for a lodging; 'I am so tired,' said he, 'that Ican go no farther.' 'Countryman,' said the witch, 'who are you? and whatis your business?' 'I am,' said he, 'a messenger sent by the king tofind the finest salad that grows under the sun. I have been luckyenough to find it, and have brought it with me; but the heat of the sunscorches so that it begins to wither, and I don't know that I can carryit farther.'

When the witch and the young lady heard of his beautiful salad, theylonged to taste it, and said, 'Dear countryman, let us just taste it.''To be sure,' answered he; 'I have two heads of it with me, and willgive you one'; so he opened his bag and gave them the bad. Then thewitch herself took it into the kitchen to be dressed; and when it wasready she could not wait till it was carried up, but took a few leavesimmediately and put them in her mouth, and scarcely were they swallowedwhen she lost her own form and ran braying down into the court in theform of an ass. Now the servant-maid came into the kitchen, and seeingthe salad ready, was going to carry it up; but on the way she too felt awish to taste it as the old woman had done, and ate some leaves; so shealso was turned into an ass and ran after the other, letting the dishwith the salad fall on the ground. The messenger sat all this time withthe beautiful young lady, and as nobody came with the salad and shelonged to taste it, she said, 'I don't know where the salad can be.'Then he thought something must have happened, and said, 'I will gointo the kitchen and see.' And as he went he saw two asses in the courtrunning about, and the salad lying on the ground. 'All right!' saidhe; 'those two have had their share.' Then he took up the rest ofthe leaves, laid them on the dish and brought them to the young lady,saying, 'I bring you the dish myself that you may not wait any longer.'So she ate of it, and like the others ran off into the court brayingaway.

Then the huntsman washed his face and went into the court that theymight know him. 'Now you shall be paid for your roguery,' said he; andtied them all three to a rope and took them along with him till hecame to a mill and knocked at the window. 'What's the matter?' said themiller. 'I have three tiresome beasts here,' said the other; 'if youwill take them, give them food and room, and treat them as I tell you,I will pay you whatever you ask.' 'With all my heart,' said the miller;'but how shall I treat them?' Then the huntsman said, 'Give the oldone stripes three times a day and hay once; give the next (who wasthe servant-maid) stripes once a day and hay three times; and givethe youngest (who was the beautiful lady) hay three times a day andno stripes': for he could not find it in his heart to have her beaten.After this he went back to the castle, where he found everything hewanted.

Some days after, the miller came to him and told him that the old asswas dead; 'The other two,' said he, 'are alive and eat, but are sosorrowful that they cannot last long.' Then the huntsman pitied them,and told the miller to drive them back to him, and when they came, hegave them some of the good salad to eat. And the beautiful young ladyfell upon her knees before him, and said, 'O dearest huntsman! forgiveme all the ill I have done you; my mother forced me to it, it wasagainst my will, for I always loved you very much. Your wishing-cloakhangs up in the closet, and as for the bird's heart, I will give it youtoo.' But he said, 'Keep it, it will be just the same thing, for I meanto make you my wife.' So they were married, and lived together veryhappily till they died.