The Tinderbox

A soldier came marching along the highroad. Left, right! Left, right! He had his knapsack on his back and a sword at his side, for he had been away at the wars and now he was going home.

On the road he met an old witch, and a horrible sight she was. Her lower lip hung all the way down to her chest. She said, “Good evening, soldier. What a fine sword you have, and what a big knapsack! You are a real soldier, and now you shall have as much money as you could ever want.”

“Thank you kindly, old witch,” said the soldier.

“Do you see that big tree over there?” said the witch, and she pointed to a tree standing beside the road. “It is quite hollow inside. Climb to the top of it and you will find a hole. You can let yourself down through it, deep into the tree. I will tie a rope around your waist, so I can pull you up again when you call me.”

“And what am I to do down there in the tree?” asked the soldier.

“Fetch money,” said the witch. “You should know that when you reach the bottom of the tree you will be standing in a great hall. It is bright down there, because more than three hundred lamps are burning. Then you will see three doors. You can open them all, for the keys are in the locks. Go into the first room, and in the middle of the floor you will see a large chest with a dog sitting on top of it. His eyes are as big as a pair of teacups, but never mind that. I will give you my blue checked apron. Spread it out on the floor, then go straight up to the dog, take hold of him, and set him down on my apron. After that you can open the chest and take as many coins as you like. They are copper. If you would rather have silver, go into the next room. There sits a dog with eyes as big as millwheels, but never mind him either. Set him on my apron and help yourself to 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 room. But the dog sitting on the money chest in there has two eyes, each one as big as a tower. Believe me, he is a wicked dog. All the same, do not be afraid. Just set him on my apron, and he will not touch you, and you may take as much gold out of the chest as you please.”

“That does not sound bad at all,” said the soldier. “But what am I to give you, old witch? You will hardly be doing this for nothing.”

“Not a thing,” said the witch. “I do not want a single shilling. Only bring me up an old tinderbox that my grandmother forgot the last time she was down there.”

“Then tie the rope around me,” said the soldier.

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

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

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. He set him on the witch’s apron and filled his pockets with as many copper coins as they would hold, shut the lid, put the dog back on top, and went on into the next room. Sure enough, there sat the dog with eyes as big as millwheels.

“You had better not stare at me like that,” said the soldier. “Your eyes will start to water.” And he set that dog on the apron too. But when he saw all the silver 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 room. What an ugly sight! That dog really did have two eyes, each one as big as a tower, and they turned around in his head like wheels.

“Good evening,” said the soldier, and he touched his cap, for he had never seen a dog like that in his life. But when he had looked at him a little longer, he thought that was polite enough, and he lifted him down onto the floor and opened the chest. Heavens, what a heap of gold! With it he could have bought the whole town, and all the sugar pigs on the cake-sellers’ stalls, and every tin soldier, whip and rocking horse in the world. Now that was gold indeed. So the soldier threw away all the silver he had packed into his pockets and his knapsack and took gold instead. Pockets, knapsack, cap and boots, he filled them all so full that he could hardly walk. Now he had money! He put the dog back on the chest, shut the door behind him, and called up through the tree.

“Pull me up now, you old witch!”

“Have you got the tinderbox?” asked the witch.

“Bless me,” said the soldier, “I forgot it completely.” And he went back and fetched it. Then the witch hauled him up, and there he stood on the highroad again, with pockets, boots, knapsack and cap full of gold.

“What do you want with the tinderbox?” asked the soldier.

“That is none of your business,” said the witch. “You have your money. Just give me the tinderbox.”

“Is that so?” said the soldier. “Tell me this minute what you mean to do with it, or I will draw my sword and cut off your head.”

“No,” said the witch.

So the soldier cut off her head that very moment, and there she lay. He tied all his gold up in her apron, swung it onto his back like a bundle, put the tinderbox in his pocket, and walked straight on to the town.

It was a splendid town. He went to the grandest inn, asked for the very best rooms and for all his favourite dishes, since he was a rich man now 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 had proper boots and handsome clothes, and he had turned from a soldier into a gentleman of quality. People told him about all the fine things in their town, and about their king, and about what a lovely princess his daughter was.

“Where can she be seen?” asked the soldier.

“She cannot be seen at all,” they all said. “She lives in a great copper castle with walls and towers all around it. Nobody but the king may go in or out, because it has been prophesied that she will marry a common soldier, and the king cannot allow that.”

“I should very much like to see her,” thought the soldier. But there was no chance whatever of his getting permission.

Now he lived merrily. He went to the theatre, he drove in the king’s garden, and he gave a great deal of money to the poor, which was good of him. He remembered from the old days how hard it is to be without a single shilling. He was rich now, he had fine clothes, and he had a great many friends, who all said he was a splendid man and a real gentleman. The soldier liked that very much. But since he spent money every day and never took any in, he was left at last with no more than two shillings, and he had to leave the beautiful rooms he had been living in and move into a little attic under the roof. He cleaned his own boots there and sewed them up with a darning needle, and not one of his friends came to see him, because there were too many stairs to climb.

It was a dark evening, and he could not even buy himself a candle. Then he remembered that there was a little candle end in the tinderbox he had taken from the hollow tree, the one the witch had helped him down into. He got out the tinderbox and the candle end, and the moment he struck a light and the flame sprang up, 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 in front of him and said, “What does my master command?”

“What is this?” said the soldier. “That is a merry sort of tinderbox, if I can get whatever I want with it. Bring me some money!” he said to the dog. And whisk, the dog was gone, and whisk, he was back again with a great bag of shillings in his mouth.

Now the soldier knew what a splendid tinderbox he had. If he struck it once, the dog came who sat on the chest of copper. If he struck twice, the one with the silver came. If he struck three times, the one who guarded the gold. Down he moved again into the beautiful rooms, and out he came in fine clothes, and all his friends knew him again at once and thought the world of him.

Then one day he thought to himself: it really is a strange thing that nobody can get a look at the princess. Everyone says she is beautiful, but what good is that if she has to sit forever in that great copper castle with all its towers? Can I not see her at all? Now where is my tinderbox? He struck a light, and whisk, there stood the dog with eyes as big as teacups.

“I know it is the middle of the night,” said the soldier, “but I should so like to see the princess, just for a moment.”

The dog was out of the door at once, and before the soldier knew it he was back 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 a soldier through and through.

Then the dog ran back with the princess. But in the morning, while the king and queen were drinking their tea, the princess said she had had a strange dream in the night about a dog and a soldier. She had ridden on the dog’s back, 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 awake by the princess’s bed and see whether it really was a dream or something else.

The soldier longed so much to see the princess again that he struck the tinderbox once more, and in the night the dog came, took her up, and ran as fast as he could. But the old lady of the court pulled on a pair of waterproof boots and ran just as fast behind him. When she saw the two of them disappear into a big 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 he saw that a cross had been made on the door of the house where the soldier lived, he took a piece of chalk himself and made crosses on every door in the whole town. That was cleverly done, for now the lady of the court could not find the right door, since there were crosses on all of them.

Early in the morning the king and queen came out with the old lady of the court and all the officers, to see where the princess had been.

“There it is!” said the king, when he saw the first door with a cross on it.

“No, it is that one, my dear husband,” said the queen, when she saw a second door with a cross on it as well.

“But here is one, and there is one!” they all said. Wherever they looked, there was a cross on a door. So they understood that searching would do them no good.

But the queen was an extremely clever woman, who could do rather more than ride about in a carriage. She took her big golden scissors, cut a large piece of silk into strips, and sewed a neat little bag out of them. She filled the bag with fine buckwheat groats and tied it on the princess’s back, and when that was done she cut a small hole in the bag, so that the groats would scatter all along whatever road the princess took.

In the night the dog came again, took the princess on his back, and ran with her to the soldier, who loved her dearly and wished with all his heart that he were a prince, so that he could have her for his wife.

The dog never noticed how the groats trailed out all the way from the castle to the soldier’s window, where the dog ran up the wall with the princess. So in the morning the king and queen saw plainly where their daughter had been, and they took the soldier and put him in prison.

There he sat. Oh, how dark and dreary it was in there! And they told him, “Tomorrow you will be hanged.” That was not a cheerful thing to hear, and besides, 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. Among them was a shoemaker’s boy in a leather apron and slippers, and he was galloping along so fast that one slipper flew off his foot and struck the wall just where the soldier sat looking out through the bars.

“Hey there, shoemaker’s boy! There is no need to be in such a hurry,” the soldier called to him. “Nothing can happen until I get there. But if you will run to the house where I used to live and fetch me my tinderbox, I will give you four shillings. Only you must take to your heels!”

The shoemaker’s boy was glad to earn four shillings, so he ran and fetched the tinderbox and gave it to the soldier, and now we shall hear what happened.

Outside the town a great gallows had been built, and 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 standing high on the ladder. But as they were about to put the rope around his neck, he said that a poor sinner was always granted one harmless wish before he suffered his punishment. He would so like to smoke a pipe of tobacco, and it would be the last pipe he would ever smoke in this world.

The king would not refuse him that, so the soldier took out his tinderbox and struck a light. One, two, three! And there stood all three dogs at once: the one with eyes as big as teacups, the one with eyes as big as millwheels, and the one whose eyes were each as big as a tower.

“Help me now, so that I am not hanged!” said the soldier.

And the dogs fell upon the judges and the whole council. They took one by the legs and another by the nose and threw them so high in the air that they came down and broke to pieces.

“I will not have it!” said the king, but the biggest dog took hold of him and of the queen too and threw them after the others. Then the soldiers were frightened, and all the people shouted, “Good soldier, you shall be our king and have the beautiful princess!”

So they seated the soldier in the king’s carriage, and all three dogs danced along in front and shouted “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 well. The wedding lasted eight days, and the dogs sat at the table too and made great round eyes.