Listening 31 – Listen for specific words

Once upon a time, two men went into the world to seek their fortunes; but they soon fell into a wasteful and foolish way of , so that they could not return home again.

Then their brother, who was a little insignificant dwarf, went out to seek his brothers: but when he had them they only laughed at him, to think that he, who was so young and simple, should try to travel through the world, when they, who were so much , had been unable to get on.

However, they all set out on their journey together, and came at last to an ant-hill. The two elder brothers would have it down, in order to see how the poor ants in their fright would run about and carry off their . But the little dwarf said, ’Let the poor things enjoy themselves, I will not allow you to trouble them.’

So on they went, and came to a where many ducks were swimming about. The two brothers wanted to two, and roast them. But the dwarf said, ’Let the poor things enjoy themselves, you shall not kill them.’

Next they came to a beehive in a hollow tree, and there was so much honey that it down the trunk; and the two brothers wanted to light a fire under the tree and kill the bees, so as to get their honey. But the dwarf held them back, and said, ’Let the pretty insects enjoy themselves, I cannot let you them.’

At length the three brothers came to a castle: and as they passed by the stables they saw horses standing there, but all were of marble. Then they went through all the , till they came to a little old man. The old man took them to a marble table, where there were three tablets, containing an of the means by which the castle might be disenchanted.

The first tablet said: ‘In the forest, under the moss, lie the thousand pearls belonging to the king’s ; they must all be found: and if one is missing by , he who seeks them will be turned into marble.’

The eldest brother set out, and sought for the pearls the whole day: but the evening came, and he had not found the first : so he was turned into stone as the tablet had foretold.

The next day the second brother undertook the task; but he no better than the first; for he could only find the second hundred of the pearls; and therefore he too was turned into stone.

At last came the little dwarf’s turn; and he looked in the moss; but it was so hard to find the pearls, and the job was so tiresome!–so he sat down upon a stone and . And as he sat there, the king of the ants (whose life he had ) came to help him, with five thousand ants; and it was not long before they had found all the pearls and laid them in a heap.

The second tablet said: ’The key of the princess’s bed-chamber must be fished up out of the lake.’ And as the dwarf to the brink of it, he saw the two ducks whose lives he had saved swimming about; and they dived down and soon brought in the key from the .

The third task was the . It was to choose the youngest and the best of the king’s three daughters. Now they were all beautiful, and all exactly : but he was told that the eldest had eaten a piece of sugar, the next some sweet syrup, and the youngest a spoonful of honey; so he was to which it was that had eaten the honey.

Then came the queen of the bees, who had been saved by the little dwarf from the fire, and she the lips of all three; but at last she sat upon the lips of the one that had eaten the honey: and so the dwarf knew which was the youngest.

Thus the spell was , and all who had been turned into stones awoke, and took their proper . And the dwarf married the youngest and the best of the princesses, and became king after her father’s , and his two brothers married the other two sisters.