The Tinderbox

A soldier came marching along the high road: left, right—left, right. He had his knapsack on his back and a sword at his side, for he had been away to the wars, and now he was on his way home.

As he walked, he met an old witch on the road, and a dreadful sight she was. Her lower lip hung all the way down to her chest. She stopped and said, "Good evening, soldier. What a fine sword you have, and what a big knapsack! You are a true soldier, so now you shall have as much money as you could ever wish for."

"Thank you, old witch," said the soldier.

"Do you see that great tree over there?" said the witch, and she pointed to a tree standing beside them. "It is quite hollow inside. You must climb to the very top, and there you will find a hole. Through it you can let yourself down deep into the tree. I will tie a rope around your body, so I can pull you up again when you call to me."

"But what am I to do down there in the tree?" asked the soldier.

"Fetch money!" said the witch. "Listen: when you reach the ground under the tree, you will find yourself in a great hall, and it will be bright, for more than three hundred lamps are burning there. Then you will see three doors, and you can open them, for the keys are in the locks. Go into the first chamber, and there in the middle of the floor you will see a large chest. On it sits a dog with eyes as big as a pair of teacups. But never mind him. I will give you my blue checked apron, which you can spread on the floor. Go up quickly, take the dog, and set him on my apron. Then open the chest and take as many coins as you like. They are copper. But if you would rather have silver, go into the next room. There sits a dog with eyes as big as mill-wheels. Never mind that either. Set him on my apron and take the money. And if it is gold you want, you can have that too, as much as you can carry, if you go into the third chamber. But the dog sitting on the money-chest there has two eyes, each as big as a tower. Believe me, he is a wicked dog! Still, do not be afraid of him. Just set him on my apron, and he will do you no harm, and you may take from the chest as much gold as you wish."

"That is not bad at all," said the soldier. "But what am I to give you, old witch? For surely you will not do this for nothing."

"No," said the witch, "not a single coin do I want. You need only bring me an old tinderbox that my grandmother left behind the last time she was down there."

"Very well, then tie the rope around my body," said the soldier.

"Here it is," said the witch, "and here is my blue checked apron."

So the soldier climbed up the tree, let himself slide down through the hole, and stood, just as the witch had said, in the great hall where the many hundred lamps were burning.

Now he opened the first door. Ugh! There sat the dog with eyes as big as teacups, staring at him.

"You are a fine fellow," said the soldier, and he set the dog on the witch's apron and took as many copper coins as his pockets could hold. Then he shut the chest, set the dog back on top, and went into the next room. Sure enough, there sat the dog with eyes as big as mill-wheels.

"You had better not stare at me so hard," said the soldier. "Your eyes might overflow." And he set the dog on the witch's apron. But when he saw all the silver money in the chest, he threw away every copper coin he had taken and filled his pockets and his knapsack with silver alone. Then he went into the third chamber. Oh, that was frightful! The dog inside truly had two eyes, each as big as a tower, and they spun round in his head just like wheels.

"Good evening," said the soldier, and he touched his cap, for he had never seen such a dog in all his life. But after he had looked at him a little more closely, he thought, "That's enough now," and he lifted the dog down onto the floor and opened the chest. Heavens, what a heap of gold there was! With it he could buy the whole town, and all the sugar-pigs of the market women, all the tin soldiers, whips, and rocking-horses in the world. Yes, that was a great deal of gold! So the soldier threw away all the silver he had crammed into his pockets and knapsack and took gold instead. His pockets, his knapsack, his cap, and even his boots were filled, until he could hardly walk. Now he had money! He set the dog back on the chest, shut the door, and called up through the tree:

"Now pull me up, you old witch!"

"Have you got the tinderbox?" asked the witch.

"Bless me!" said the soldier. "I quite forgot it!" And he went and fetched it. Then the witch drew him up, and there he stood again on the high road, with his pockets, boots, knapsack, and cap full of gold.

"What do you want with the tinderbox?" asked the soldier.

"That is no business of yours," said the witch. "You have your money. Now give me the tinderbox."

"Not so fast!" said the soldier. "Tell me at once what you mean to do with it, or I shall draw my sword and cut off your head."

"No," said the witch.

So the soldier cut off her head at once. There she lay! But he tied all his gold up in her apron, slung it on his back like a bundle, put the tinderbox in his pocket, and went straight on to the town.

It was a splendid town. He put up at the finest inn, asked for the very best rooms and all his favorite dishes, for now he was rich, with so much money.

The servant who was to clean his boots did think they were remarkably old boots for such a rich gentleman. But the soldier had not yet bought new ones. The next day he got proper boots and fine clothes, and now he was no longer just a soldier but a grand gentleman. People told him of all the wonders that were to be seen in their town, and of their king, and of what a pretty princess his daughter was.

"Where can one see her?" asked the soldier.

"She cannot be seen at all," everyone said. "She lives in a great copper castle surrounded by walls and towers. No one but the king may go in or out to her, for it has been prophesied that she will marry a common soldier, and that the king cannot allow!"

"I should dearly like to see her," thought the soldier. But there was no way at all he could get permission.

So he lived merrily, went to the theater, drove in the king's garden, and gave a great deal of money to the poor—and that was kind of him, for he remembered from earlier days how hard it is not to have a single coin. Now he was rich, had fine clothes, and made ever so many friends, who all said what a splendid man he was, a true gentleman. And the soldier liked that. But since he spent money every day and never earned any, at last he had no more than two coins left. He had to leave the fine rooms where he had lived and move up into a little garret under the roof, and clean his own boots and mend them himself with a darning needle. None of his friends came to see him, for there were far too many stairs to climb.

One dark evening he could not even buy himself a candle. Then he remembered that there was a little stub of candle in the tinderbox he had taken from the hollow tree, the one the witch had helped him down into. He found the tinderbox and the candle stub, but the moment he struck a spark from the flint, the door flew open, and the dog with eyes as big as a pair of teacups—the one he had seen under the tree—stood before him and said, "What does my master command?"

"What is this?" said the soldier. "This is a merry tinderbox indeed, if I can get whatever I want! Bring me some money," he said to the dog. And whisk! the dog was gone, and whisk! he was back again, holding a great bag of coins in his mouth.

Now the soldier understood what a wonderful tinderbox this was! If he struck it once, the dog came who sat on the chest of copper. If he struck twice, the one who had the silver came. And if he struck three times, the one who guarded the gold came. So the soldier moved back down into the fine rooms and appeared once more in his fine clothes, and at once all his friends knew him again and thought a great deal of him.

One day he thought to himself: "It is a strange thing that no one can get a look at the princess. Everyone says she is very beautiful, but what good is that if she must always sit in the great copper castle with all those towers? Can I not manage to see her somehow? Now, where is my tinderbox?" And he struck a spark, and whisk! there stood the dog with eyes as big as teacups.

"It is the middle of the night, I know," said the soldier, "but I should so dearly like to see the princess, just for a moment."

The dog was out the door in an instant, and before the soldier knew it, back he came with the princess. She sat asleep on the dog's back, and she was so lovely that anyone could see she was a real princess. The soldier could not help kissing her, for he was every inch a soldier.

Then the dog ran back with the princess. But in the morning, while the king and queen were drinking their tea, the princess told them she had had a strange dream in the night, about a dog and a soldier: she had ridden on the dog, and the soldier had kissed her.

"That would be a fine story indeed!" said the queen.

So the next night one of the old ladies of the court was to sit watch by the princess's bed, to find out whether it truly was a dream, or something else.

The soldier longed terribly to see the princess again, so in the night the dog came, fetched her, and ran as fast as he could. But the old lady-in-waiting pulled on a pair of high waterproof boots and ran just as fast behind him. When she saw them disappear into a great house, she thought, "Now I know where it is," and she made a large cross on the door with a piece of chalk. Then she went home and lay down, and the dog came back with the princess. But when the dog saw the cross on the door of the house where the soldier lived, he took a piece of chalk himself and made crosses on all the house doors in the town. And that was clever of him, for now the lady-in-waiting could not tell which was the right door, since there were crosses on all of them.

Early the next morning the king and queen, the old lady-in-waiting, and all the officers came out to see where the princess had been.

"Here it is!" said the king, when he saw the first door with a cross on it.

"No, it is over there, my dear husband!" said the queen, seeing a second door with a cross as well.

"But here is one, and there is another!" everyone cried, for wherever they looked there was a cross on the door. Then they saw plainly that searching would do them no good.

But the queen was a very clever woman, who could do more than ride about in a carriage. She took her great gold scissors, cut a piece of silk into little squares, and sewed a neat little bag. She filled it with fine buckwheat groats, tied it onto the princess's back, and then cut a small hole in it, so that the groats would sprinkle out along the whole way the princess went.

In the night the dog came again, took the princess on his back, and ran with her to the soldier, who loved her so dearly and would gladly have been a prince so that he might make her his wife. The dog never noticed how the groats scattered all the way from the castle to the soldier's window, where he ran up the wall with the princess. So in the morning the king and queen saw clearly where their daughter had been, and they took the soldier and threw him into prison.

There he sat. Ugh, how dark and dreary it was! And they told him, "Tomorrow you will be hanged." That was not a cheerful thing to hear, and he had left his tinderbox behind at the inn. In the morning he could see through the iron bars of the little window how the people were hurrying out of the town to watch him hang. He heard the drums and saw the soldiers marching. Everyone was running out, and among them was a shoemaker's boy in a leather apron and slippers, galloping along so fast that one slipper flew off his foot and struck the wall right where the soldier sat looking through the iron bars.

"Hey there, shoemaker's boy! You needn't be in such a hurry," called the soldier. "Nothing can happen before I am there! But if you'll run to the house where I used to live and fetch me my tinderbox, I'll give you four coins. Only you must be quick on your feet!" The shoemaker's boy was glad to earn the four coins, so he ran off, fetched the tinderbox, and gave it to the soldier—and now, we shall see what happened!

Outside the town a great gallows had been built, and all around it stood the soldiers and many hundreds of thousands of people. The king and the queen sat on a splendid throne, facing the judges and the whole council.

The soldier was already up on the ladder, but just as they were about to put the rope around his neck, he said that it was always the custom to grant a poor condemned man one harmless wish before he suffered his punishment. He wished so very much to smoke one pipe of tobacco—the last pipe he would ever smoke in this world.

The king did not want to refuse him that, so the soldier took his tinderbox and struck a light: one, two, three. And there, all at once, stood all three dogs—the one with eyes as big as teacups, the one with eyes as big as mill-wheels, and the one whose eyes were each as big as a tower.

"Help me now, so that I shall not be hanged!" cried the soldier. And the dogs fell upon the judges and the whole council, seized one by the legs and another by the nose, and flung them many yards up into the air, so that they came down and shattered to pieces.

"I will not!" said the king. But the largest dog seized both him and the queen and threw them after the rest. Then the soldiers were terrified, and all the people cried, "Good soldier, you shall be our king, and you shall have the beautiful princess!"

So they set the soldier in the king's carriage, and all three dogs danced along in front and cried, "Hurrah!" The boys whistled through their fingers, and the soldiers presented arms. The princess came out of the copper castle and became queen, and that pleased her very much! The wedding lasted eight days, and the dogs sat at the table too, staring with all their great big eyes.