“Then first help me out of this well.”
The little man took him by the hand and led him up above, and they
took the blue light with them. When they were back above ground, the
soldier said: “Now go and beat the old witch to death for me.”
After the little man did this, he showed the soldier the witch’s treasures
and gold, and the soldier loaded them in a sack and took everything with
him. Then the little man said, “If you need me, just light your pipe with
the blue light.”
The soldier returned to the city and stopped at the best inn where he
had fine clothes made for himself and had a room furnished in a splendid
way. When it was ready, the soldier called the little man and said: “The
king sent me away and let me starve because I could no longer serve him
well. Now bring the king’s daughter to me here tonight. She will have to
wait on me and do what I command.”
“That’s dangerous,” the little man said, but he did what the soldier
demanded anyway. He went and fetched the sleeping princess from her
bed and brought her to the soldier. Then she had to obey and do what he
said. In the morning when the cock crowed, the little black man had to
bring her back again. When she got up, she told her father: “I had a strange
dream this past night, and it seemed to me that I had been taken away and
had become a soldier’s maid and had to wait on him.”
“Fill your pockets full of peas,” replied the king, “and make a hole in it.
The dream could be true. Then the peas will fall out and leave a trail on
the street.”
So she did this, but the little man had overheard what the king had
advised her to do. When evening came and the soldier said that the little
man should bring the king’s daughter to him again, the little man spread
peas all over the city so that the few peas that fell out of her pocket could
leave no trace. The next morning the people of the city had to pick up and
sort all the peas. Once again, the king’s daughter told her father what had
The Blue Light 385
happened to her, and he answered: “Keep one shoe on, and hide the other
secretly wherever you are.”