The Watchmaker (Gypsy Lore)

 There was once a poor lad. He took the road, went to find himself a  master. He met a priest on the road. Where are you going, my lad?'

'I am going to find myself a master.' 

 'Mine's  the very place for you, my lad, for I've another lad like you, and I  have six oxen and a plough. Do you enter my service and plough all this  field.'

The lad arose, and took the plough and the oxen, and went  into the fields and ploughed two days. Luck and the Ogre came to him.  And the Ogre said to Luck, 'Go for him.' Luck didn't want to go for him;  only the Ogre went. When the Ogre went for him, he laid himself down on  his back, and unlaced his boots, and took to flight across the plain.
The other lad shouted after him, 'Don't go, brother; don't go, brother.'
'Bah! God blast your plough and you as well.'

Then  he came to a city of the size of Bucharest. Presently he arrived at a  watchmaker's shop. And he leaned his elbows on the shop-board and  watched the prentices at their work. Then one of them asked him, 'Why do  you sit there hungry?' 

 'He said, 'Because I like to watch you working.'

Then  the master came out and said, 'Here, my lad, I will hire you for three  years, and will show you all that I am master of. For a year and a day,'  he continued, 'you will have nothing to do but chop wood, and feed the  oven fire, and sit with your elbows on the table, and watch the  prentices at their work.' 

 Now the watchmaker had had a clock of  the emperor's fifteen years, and no one could be found to repair it; he  had fetched watchmakers from Paris and Vienna, and not one of them had  managed it. The time came when the emperor offered the half of his  kingdom to whoso should repair it; one and all they failed. The clock  had twenty-four tunes in it. And as it played, the emperor grew young  again. Easter Sunday came; and the watchmaker went to church with his  prentices. Only the old wife and the lad stayed behind. The lad chopped  the wood up quickly, and went back to the table that they did their work  at. He never touched one of the little watches, but he took the big  clock, and set it on the table. He took out two of its pipes, and  cleaned them, and put them back in their place; then the four-and-twenty  tunes began to play, and the clock to go. Then the lad hid himself for  fear; and all the people came out of the church when they heard the  tunes playing. 

 The watchmaker, too, came home, and said, 'Mother, who did me this kindness, and repaired the clock?' 

 His mother said, 'Only the lad, dear, went near the table.' 

 And  he sought him and found him sitting in the stable. He took him in his  arms: 'My lad, you were my master, and I never knew it, but set you to  chop wood on Easter Day.' Then he sent for three tailors, and they made  him three fine suits of clothes. Next day he ordered a carriage with  four fine horses; and he took the clock in his arms, and went off to the  emperor. The emperor, when he heard it, came down from his throne, and  took his clock in his arms and grew young. Then he said to the  watchmaker, 'Bring me him who mended the clock.' 

 He said, 'I mended it.'
'Don't tell me it was you. Go and bring me him who mended it.'
He went then and brought the lad. 

 The emperor said, 'Go, give the watchmaker three purses
of  ducats; but the lad you shall have no more, for I mean to give him ten  thousand ducats a year, just to stay here and mind the clock and repair  it when it goes wrong.'
So the lad dwelt there thirteen years. 

 The  emperor had a grown-up daughter, and he proposed to find a husband for  her. She wrote a letter, and gave it to her father. And what did she put  in the letter? She put this: 'Father, I am minded to feign to be dumb;  and whoso is able to make me speak, I will be his.' 

 Then the  emperor made a proclamation throughout the world: 'He who is able to  make my daughter speak shall get her to wife; and whoso fails him will I  kill.' 

 Then many suitors came, but not one of them made her speak. And the emperor killed them all, and by and by no one more came.
Now  the lad, the watchmaker, went to the emperor, and said, 'Emperor, let  me also go to the maiden, to see if I cannot make her speak.' 

 'Well,  this is how it stands, my lad. Haven't you seen the proclamation on the  table, how I have sworn to kill whoever fails to make her speak?'

'Well, kill me also, Emperor, if I too fail.'

'In that case, go to her.'

The  lad dressed himself bravely, and went into her chamber. She was sewing  at her frame. When the lad entered, he said, 'Good-day, you rogue.'

Thank you, watchmaker. Well, sit you down since you have come, and take a bite.'
'Well, all right, you rogue.'

He only was speaking. 1 Then he tarried no longer, but came out and said, 'Good-night, rogue.'
'Farewell, watchmaker.' 

 Next  evening the emperor summoned him, to kill him. But the lad said, 'Let  me go one more night.' Then the lad went again, and said, 'Good-evening,  rogue.'

'Welcome, watchmaker. And since you have come, brother, pray sit down to table.'
Only he spoke, so at last he said, 'Good-night, rogue.'

'Farewell, watchmaker.'

Next night the emperor summoned him. 'I must kill you now, for you have reached your allotted term.'
Then said the lad, 'Do you know, emperor, that there is thrice forgiveness for a man?'
'Then go to-night, too.' 

 Then the lad went that night, and said, 'How do you do, rogue?'
'Thank you, watchmaker. Since you have come, sit at table.'
'So  I will, rogue. And see you this knife in my hand? I mean to cut you in  pieces if you will not answer my question.' And why should I not answer  it, watchmaker?'
'Well, rogue, know you the princess?'
'And how should I not know her?'
'And the three princes, know you them?'
'I know them, watchmaker.' 

 'Well  and good, if you know them. The three brothers had an intrigue with the  princess. They knew not that the three had to do with her. But what did  the maiden? She knew they were brothers. The eldest came at nightfall,  and she set him down to table and he ate. Then she lay with him and shut  him up in a chamber. The middle one came at midnight, and she lay with  him also and shut him up in another chamber. And that same night came  the youngest, and she lay with him too. Then at daybreak she let them  all out, and they sprang to slay one another, the three brothers. The  maiden said, "Hold, brothers, do not slay one another, but go home and  take each of you to himself ten thousand ducats, and go into three  cities; and his I will become who brings me the finest piece of  workmanship." So the eldest journeyed to Bucharest, and there found a  beautiful mirror. Now look you what kind of mirror it was. "Here,  merchant, what is the price of your mirror?" 

 "Ten thousand ducats, my lad."
"Indeed, is that not very dear, brother?"
"But  mark you what kind of mirror it is. You look in it and you can see both  the dead and the living therein." Now let's have a look at the middle  brother. He went to another city and found a robe.
"You, merchant, what is the price of this robe?"
"Ten thousand ducats, my son."'
'What are you talking about, watchmaker? A robe cost ten thousand ducats!'
'But look you, you rogue, what sort of robe it is. For when you step on it, it will carry you whither you will.

So  you may fancy he cries "Done!" Meanwhile the youngest also arrived in a  city and found a Jew, and bought an apple from him. And the apple was  such that when a dead man ate it he revived. He took it and came to his  brothers. And when they were all come home they saw their sweet-heart  dead. And they gave her the apple to eat and she arose. And whom then  did she choose? She chose the youngest. What do you say?'
And the emperor's daughter spoke. And the watchmaker took her to wife. And they made a marriage.