green fairy tale book

Chapter 10 The Story of the Soldier (2)
Inside the cabin was a young girl mending a fishing net.She invited the soldier into the house and brought him some wine and some fried fish.After eating and drinking, Xiaobing told the kind-hearted fisherman what happened to him.Although the girl was very beautiful, with skin as white as the chest of a seagull—so her neighbors called her the seagull—Xiao Bing didn't want her to be his wife, because he still couldn't forget Princess Ludovina. Pair of beautiful green eyes.

After Xiaobing finished his story, Seagull expressed his sympathy, saying:

"While I was fishing last week, I suddenly felt that the net was getting heavy. I pulled it up and found a large copper vase in the net, and the mouth of the bottle was sealed with lead. So I took it home and put it on. I baked it on the fire, and when the lead melted a little, I opened the vase with a knife, and took out a cloak made of red cloth and a money bag with fifty silver coins in it. This is the cloak , I used it as a bedspread. I was going to keep the money in the purse for my dowry. But take it with you, and go to the nearest port! There you will find a ship for the Low Countries. Waiting for you When you become king, return the fifty silver coins to me."

The little soldier replied, "When I become King of the Lowlands, I will make you the queen's handmaid, because you are not only beautiful, but also very kind. Good-bye, then." After he had finished speaking, the seagull went out to sea to fish. went.The soldier wrapped his cloak around himself, then fell headfirst into a pile of hay, thinking silently of all the strange things that had happened to him.After a while he said to himself:

"Oh! I wish I were in the capital of the Low Countries now!"

4
In an instant, Xiaobing found himself standing in front of a magnificent palace.He rubbed his eyes, pinched his face again, and found that he was not dreaming.Then he asked a man sitting smoking a pipe in front of the palace gate: "Where am I now?"

"Where are you? Can't you see it? Of course it's in front of the king's palace!"

"What king?"

"Cough! The King of the Lowlands!" said the man laughing, thinking that the soldier must be crazy.

What the hell happened?Monk Zhang Er, the little soldier, was puzzled.But he was an honest lad, and he was troubled lest the Seagull should think he had stolen her cloak and purse.He thought: How can I return them to her the fastest?At this time, he suddenly thought that maybe this cloak has some unknown magical powers, such as allowing the wearer to instantly move from one place to another at will.To prove it, he wished he was in the best inn in the city.Sure enough, in the blink of an eye, he was standing there.

Xiaobing was ecstatic about this discovery.As it was too late to visit the king, he went to bed after supper.

When he awoke the next day, he found that all the houses in the street were hung with garlands and flags, and the church bells were ringing.The soldier asked curiously what had happened, and they told him: Princess Ludovina, the king's beautiful daughter, had finally been found.The common people received the order to welcome her back with lights and festoons. "

"It's just what I want," Xiaobing thought, "I want to stand at the door and see if she still recognizes me."

He dressed in a hurry when Princess Ludovina's carriage happened to pass by the door.She wears a golden crown on her head, and the king and queen sit on either side of her.Her gaze happened to fall on Xiao Bing, her face immediately turned pale, and she turned her head away.

"Doesn't she know me?" Xiaobing asked himself, "or is she angry with me because I missed the appointment again and again?" He followed the crowd until he reached the gate of the palace.When the royal convoy entered the gate, the soldier told the guard that he was the one who saved the princess and hoped to see the king.But the more he talked, the more the guards thought he was crazy and refused to let him in.

Xiaobing was so angry that he felt that he needed to use a pipe to calm himself down.So he went into the tavern and ordered a beer.

"That's a poor soldier's helmet!" he said to himself. "If I had enough money, I could dress as richly as a head of state. But what's the use of thinking about it? There are only fifty silver coins from the seagull."

He took out the purse to see how much money was still in it, and found that there were still fifty silver coins in it.

"The seagull must have miscalculated," he thought.Then he paid for the drink, then opened the purse and counted it again, and found that there were still fifty silver coins in it.He took five of them, counted them for the third time, and it was still fifty silver coins.Finally, he poured out all the money in the purse, and when he opened the purse, he found that there were still fifty silver coins in it!

A plan popped into his head.He immediately decided to go to the royal tailor and the man who made the royal carriages.He asked a tailor to make him a cloak and sweater of blue velvet, studded with pearls, and a carriage builder to build him a carriage, which had to be exactly like Princess Ludovina's.Xiaobing promised that if they could finish the work early, he would pay them double the reward.

5
The next day, the whole town was talking about a rich prince who was driving a cart and handing out money to people.The rumor even reached the ears of members of the royal family.The queen was very curious and wanted to meet the rich prince.

"Well," said the king, "send for him, and let him play cards with me!"

This time the soldier was not late.The king sent for the cards, and they sat down to play.They played a total of six rounds, betting fifty silver pieces each, but the pawns lost all of them.Every time he took out the money in the money bag, but in the next second, the money bag was filled with silver coins again.And so, at the sixth time, the king could bear it no longer, and exclaimed, "This is marvelous!"

The Queen also screamed: "Amazing!"

The princess also said: "This is incredible!"

"It's nothing incredible," Xiaobing replied. "It's even more incredible that you were a snake."

"Shut up!" said the king roughly.He obviously didn't like the subject.

"I'm talking about facts," Xiaobing said, "because I was the one who saved the princess from the evil spirit, and she promised to marry me."

"Is what he said true?" the king asked the princess.

"Indeed," said Ludovina, "but I told my benefactor that he would come out to accompany me when my carriage passed his door. I passed three times, but each time he was sound asleep, No one can wake him up."

"What is your name?" said the king, "and what is your identity?"

"My name is John, and I am a soldier, and my father is a boatman."

"You're not quite right for my daughter! But you can still marry her if you give us your purse."

"This purse doesn't belong to me, I can't give it to someone else."

"But you can lend it to me, and I'll return it to you on the day we get married." Saying this, the princess looked at him with eyes that Xiaobing couldn't resist.

"Well then, when are we getting married?"

"Easter," said the king.

"Or in the next life." The princess muttered in a low voice, but the soldier didn't hear this sentence.In this way, he let the princess take the purse.

The next evening, the soldier came to the palace, intending to play poker with the king and show courteousness to the princess.But he was told that the king had gone to the country to collect rent.The next day he came to the palace again, but was sent away again with the same words.Then he asked to see the queen, but the queen was suffering from a headache.After repeating this five or six times, he finally understood that he was tricked by them.

"This is not the way a king should behave," thought the soldier angrily, "the old scoundrel!" Then he thought suddenly of his red cloak.

"Ah! what a fool I am!" said he; "with its help, I can enter the palace whenever I want."

In the evening, he stood before the palace, wrapping himself in his cloak.The light was on in a room on the second floor, and Xiaobing saw the shadow of the princess on the curtain.

"I wish I was in Princess Ludovina's room right now," he said.So he was there at once.The King's daughter was sitting at the table, counting the money poured out of the inexhaustible purse.

"850, nine hundred, 950..."

"One thousand," said the soldier, "good evening, everyone!"

The princess screamed and jumped up: "Why are you here! What do you want to do? Leave now, or I will call..."

"I'm here," Xiaobing said, "to remind you not to forget your promise. The day after tomorrow is Easter, and it's time to plan our wedding."

Ludovina laughed. "Our wedding! You are so stupid! Do you really think that the daughter of the king of the Lowlands will marry the son of a boatman?"

"Then, give me back my purse," said the soldier.

"Don't think about it!" said the princess coldly, and put the purse into her pocket.

"As you like," said the little soldier, "the one who laughs last laughs the happiest." Then he took the princess' arm.

"I hope," cried he, "that we are at the end of the world." In a second he was there, still holding the Princess's arm tightly.

The soldier politely put her under a tree, and said, "Oh, I've never traveled so far. What do you think, ma'am?"

The princess knew that this was not the time for joking at all, so she didn't answer.Besides, she was still dazed and hadn't fully regained consciousness due to the speed of the flight.

6
The King of the Lowlands was not a righteous man, and his daughter had inherited it, and that was why she turned into a snake.But because of the prophecy, she will be rescued by a soldier, and she must marry him, unless he misses the appointment three times and does not show up at the agreed place.So the cunning princess made plans in advance.The wine she gave the soldiers in the ghost's castle, the never-withering flowers and the scarves she gave to the soldiers, all contain drugs that make people sleepy.Of course, the efficacy is obvious to all!
But even at such an urgent juncture, Ludovina still did not lose her shrewd mind.

"I thought you were but a tramp," she said in the softest tone, "but now I see you are more capable than any king. Here is your purse, take it. You have it and I will give it to you Flowers and a scarf?"

"Of course they are here," said Xiaobing, delighted by the princess's change of tone.He took the scarf and bouquet out of his arms.Ludovina put flowers in his buttonhole and wrapped the scarf around his arms.Then say: "Now, you are my master, my king, and I will marry you if you please."

"You are kinder than I imagined," Xiaobing said, "You will never be unhappy, because I love you."

"Then, my little husband, tell me how you brought me to the end of the world so quickly."

(End of this chapter)