“Hallo, here I am again! just see what I have found now: you don’t find
that on the high road every day!”
And the brothers turned round to see what he could have found now.
“Dullard!” they cried, “that is only an old wooden shoe, and the upper
part is missing into the bargain; are you going to give that also to the
Princess?”
“Most certainly I shall,” replied Jean the Dullard; and again the brothers
laughed and rode on, and thus they got far in advance of him; but-
“Hallo-hop rara!” and there was Jean the Dullard again. “It is getting
better and better,” he cried. “Hurrah! it is quite famous.”
“Why, what have you found this time?” inquired the brothers.
“Oh,” said Jean the Dullard, “I can hardly tell you. How glad the Princess
will be!”
“Bah!” said the brothers; “that is nothing but clay out of the ditch.”
“Yes, certainly it is,” said Jean the Dullard; “and clay of the finest sort.
See, it is so wet, it runs through one’s fingers.” And he filled his pocket
with the clay.
But his brothers galloped on till the sparks flew, and consequently they
arrived a full hour earlier at the town gate than could Jean. Now at the gate
each suitor was provided with a number, and all were placed in rows
immediately on their arrival, six in each row, and so closely packed together
that they could not move their arms; and that was a prudent arrangement,
for they would certainly have come to blows, had they been able, merely
because one of them stood before the other.
All the inhabitants of the country round about stood in great crowds
around the castle, almost under the very windows, to see the Princess
receive the suitors; and as each stepped into the hall, his power of speech
seemed to desert him, like the light of a candle that is blown out. Then the
Princess would say, “He is of no use! Away with him out of the hall!”
