THERE was once a father who had two sons. One was ambitious, and sensible, and clever enough to do almost anything. But the younger one was so stupid he made no progress at all. When people saw how useless he was, they said, “His father will have plenty of trouble with him.”
If there was any task that needed doing, it fell to the lot of the elder son, who never failed to do his work faithfully and well, unless his father asked him to fetch something in the evening after dark. Then, if the errand would compel him to pass through the churchyard or along a dismal stretch of roadway, he would say: “Oh no, father, I cannot go! I am afraid. It would make me shiver and shake.”
Occasionally when the household gathered around the fire after supper, with very likely the company of a neighbor or two, some one would tell a ghost story which would cause the listeners’ flesh to creep, and they would exclaim, “How you make me shiver!”
The youngest son, however, as he sat in the corner and heard these exclamations, could not imagine what was meant. “There’s something queer about it,” said he. “They say: ‘It makes me shiver! It makes me shiver!’ But it doesn’t make me shiver a bit. Shivering is an accomplishment I don’t understand.”
One day his father said to him, “Listen, you lad in the corner there, you are growing big and strong. You must learn some trade by which to get a living. See how your brother works, but you are not worth your salt.”
“Well, father,” he responded, “I am quite ready to learn something. With what shall I begin? I would very much like to learn how to shiver and shake, for about that I know nothing.”
The elder son laughed when he heard him speak thus. “Good heavens!” he thought, “what a simpleton my brother is! He will never be good for anything as long as he lives.”
His father sighed and said, “What shivering means you may learn easily enough, but such knowledge will not help you any in getting your bread.”
Soon afterward the sexton called at the house, and the father confided to him his anxiety about his younger son. “It is quite evident,” said he, “that the lad will never be any credit to us. Would you believe that when I asked him how he was going to earn his living, he said he would like to learn to shiver and shake?”
“If that’s what he wants to learn,” said the sexton, “we can easily gratify him. I can teach him that myself. Just let him serve me for a while and I’ll put the polish on him.”
The father was pleased, for he thought, “Anyhow the lad will gain something by the experience.”
So the sexton took the youth home with him, and he had to ring the church bells. A few days passed, and the sexton woke him at midnight and told him to get up and go to the church tower to ring the bells. “You shall soon be taught how to shiver and shake,” thought the sexton as he hastened to the belfry ahead of the lad, and crept stealthily up the stairs.
The youth arrived a few minutes later and stumbled along up the stairway in the darkness. He was about to grasp the bell rope when he observed a white figure standing at the head of the stairs. “Who is there?” he called out, but the figure neither stirred nor spoke.
“Answer!” cried the lad, “or get out of the way. You have no business here in the night.”
But the sexton wanted the boy to think he was a ghost, and he did not stir.
The lad called out a second time: “What do you want here? Speak, if you are an honest fellow, or I’ll throw you down the stairs.”
“He never would dare undertake such a thing,” thought the sexton. So he made no sound and stood as still as if he were made of stone.
Once more the lad threatened the shrouded figure, and as he got no answer he sprang forward and threw the ghost down the stairs. The apparition bumped along down the steps and lay motionless in a corner. Then the lad rang the bells, walked home, and without saying a word to anybody went to bed. Soon he was fast asleep.
The sexton’s wife waited a long time for her husband, but he did not come, and at last she became anxious and woke up the lad. “Do you know what has become of my husband?” she asked. “He went up into the church tower in front of you.”
“No,” answered the lad; “but there was somebody standing at the head of the stairs in the belfry, and as he would neither reply nor go away, I thought he was a rogue and I threw him downstairs. Go and see if he was your husband. I should be sorry if he was.”
The woman hurried away and found the sexton moaning with a broken leg. She carried him home, and the first thing in the morning hastened with loud cries to the lad’s father. “Your son has brought a great misfortune on us,” she said. “He has thrown my husband downstairs and broken his leg. Take the good-for-nothing wretch away out of our house.”
The father was horrified. He went back with her and gave the lad a good scolding. “What is the meaning of this inhuman prank?” he said. “The evil one must have put it into your head.”
“Father,” responded the lad, “I am quite innocent. He stood there in the dark like a man with some wicked purpose. I did not know who he was, and I warned him three times to speak or to go away.”
“Alas!” said his father, “you bring me nothing but disaster. Get out of my sight. I will have nothing more to do with you.”
“To travel elsewhere is just what I wish,” said the lad, “for I hope that will lead to my learning how to shiver and shake. I want at least to have that accomplishment to my credit.”
“Learn what you like,” said his father. “It’s all the same to me. Here are fifty silver pieces for you. Go out into the world, but tell no one whence you come, or who your father is, for you would only bring me to shame.”
“Just as you please, father,” said the lad. “If that is all you want I can easily fulfil your desire.”
So the lad put his fifty silver pieces into his pocket and betook himself to the highroad. As he tramped along he said over and over, “Oh that I could learn to shiver! Oh that I could learn to shake!”
A man overtook him and heard the words he was saying. They went on together till they came to a gallows whereon seven men were hanging. “Sit down here,” said the man, “and when night comes you will learn to shiver and shake.”
“If nothing more than that is needed,” said the lad, “I shall be well pleased; and I promise you, in case I learn to shiver so speedily, that you shall have the fifty silver pieces now in my pocket. Come back to me early tomorrow morning.”
Then the lad sat down beside the gallows. It grew cold after sundown, and a sharp wind blew and made the bodies on the gallows swing back and forth with a dismal creaking of the ropes by which they were suspended. “Poor fellows!” said the lad, “I am none too warm down here in a sheltered nook on the ground, and you must have a chilly time of it up aloft there.”
Then he curled up and went to sleep. Next morning the man who had been his companion on the day before came and said, “Well, I suppose you know now what shivering means.”
“No,” said the lad, “how could I learn it? Those fellows on the gallows never opened their mouths.”
The man saw that he would get no silver pieces, and he went away, saying, “Never before in my life did I meet such a person as that.”
Soon afterward the lad resumed his travels, and again began saying to himself: “Oh that I could learn to shiver! Oh that I could learn to shake!”
A carter, who chanced to be on the road, heard his plaint, and asked, “Who are you?”
“I don’t know,” said the youth.
“Who is your father?” the carter questioned.
“That I must not say,” was the lad’s response.
“What is it you are grumbling about to yourself as you walk along?” the carter inquired.
“Ah,” said the youth, “I wish to learn what shivering is, but no one can teach me.”
“Nonsense!” said the carter. “Just you come with me and I’ll see that your desire is gratified.”
So the youth went with the carter, and in the evening they reached an inn and arranged to stay there for the night. “Oh that I could learn to shiver! Oh that I could learn to shake!” sighed the youth as he sat down to wait for supper.
The landlord laughed, and said, “If that’s what you want, you can have plenty of opportunity for learning here.”
“Hold your tongue,” said the landlady. “Many an imprudent fellow has paid the penalty for his curiosity with his life already. It would be a sin and a shame not to have this stranger’s bright eyes see the light of day again.”
But the youth said: “However difficult it may be to learn what shivering is, the lesson is one I am eager to learn. I left my home to seek such knowledge.”
He would not be put off with evasions, and at last the landlord told him that not far distant stood an enchanted castle, and that any one who stayed there over night would surely learn to shiver. Moreover, the king had promised his daughter in marriage to the man who would spend three nights in the castle, and every one said she was the most beautiful young lady the sun ever shone on. Such a vigil would break the spell that was on the castle, and he who accomplished this would become master of a great treasure hidden there and guarded by evil spirits. But many, aspiring to win the princess and the treasure and the renown, had gone into the castle, and not one had ever come out.
The next morning the youth went to the king, and said, “By your leave, I would like to pass three nights in the enchanted castle.”
His request was granted, though with some reluctance, for the king took a fancy to the lad, and was sorry to think of his probable fate.
When night came, the youth went to the castle, made a bright fire in one of the rooms, and sat down beside it. “Oh, if I could only shiver!” said he, “but I doubt if I can learn how even here.”
At midnight he got up from where he was sitting and freshened the fire. Suddenly some creatures in a corner of the room began to shriek, “Mew, mew! how cold we are!”
“Simpletons!” he exclaimed, “what are you screeching for? If you are cold, come and warm yourselves by the fire.”
Immediately two big black cats sprang forth from the gloomy corner and sat down one on each side of him. They stared at him with wild, fiery eyes until they had warmed themselves, and then said, “Comrade, shall we have a game of cards?”
“Certainly,” he replied, “but show me your paws first.”
They each lifted a front foot and stretched out their claws.
“Why,” said he, “what long nails you’ve got! Wait a bit. I must cut them for you.”
He picked up a sword he had brought with him, but instead of cutting their nails he seized each cat in turn by the scruff of the neck and killed it by thrusting his sword through its body. That done, he dragged them to a window and heaved them out. But no sooner had he got rid of these cats and was about to sit down by his fire again than crowds of dogs, all jet black, swarmed out of every nook and corner of the room. They howled horribly and trampled on his fire, and tried to put it out.
For a time he looked quietly on, but at last he got angry, took up his sword, and cried, “You rascally pack, away with you!” and he let fly among them right and left. Some of them escaped, and the rest he struck dead and threw out of the window.
When he finished, he returned to the fire, scraped the embers together, and set it to blazing. At the far side of the room was a big bed, and he went and lay down on it, intending to sleep the remainder of the night. But just as he was closing his eyes the bed began to move. It crossed the room, went out at a door, and soon was tearing round and round the castle. “Very good,” he said, “the faster the better!”
The bed careered along as if it were drawn by six horses. Sometimes it was in the castle, sometimes outside, and the way it jolted over the thresholds and jigged up and down the stairs was very surprising, to say the least. Suddenly it went hop, hop, hop, with more violence than ever, and turned topsy-turvy so that it lay on the lad like a mountain. But he pitched the pillows and blankets into the air, and soon he had disencumbered himself and got on his feet. “Now some one else may ride,” said he, and he made his way back to his fire and lay down on the hearth and went to sleep.
In the morning the king came to the castle and found the youth stretched out on the floor. He thought the ghosts had killed him, and he said, “It is a pity that such a vigorous, handsome fellow should thus perish.”
But the youth heard him and sat up, saying, “It has not come to that yet.”
The king was much surprised, and asked him how he had fared.
“Very well,” he answered. “One night is gone, and I expect to get safely through the others.”
Presently he returned to the inn. The landlord opened his eyes when he saw him, and said: “I never thought to behold you alive again. Have you learned how to shiver yet?”
“No,” replied the lad, “it’s all in vain.”
The second night he went again to the castle, started a fire, and sat down by it and began his old song, “Oh if I could only learn to shiver!”
At midnight he commenced to hear a ringing, rattling noise, first soft, but increasing till there was a great uproar. Then there was a sudden silence. At last, with a loud scream, half a man’s body came tumbling down the chimney and rolled out on the floor in front of the lad. “Hello!” he said, “here is only half a man. This is not enough.”
The rattling and ringing were renewed, and soon, amidst shrieks and howls, the other half fell down.
“Wait a moment,” said the youth, “and I’ll poke up the fire.”
When this was done, and he looked around, the two halves had joined themselves together, and a hideous man sat on the bench. “We didn’t bargain for that,” said the lad. “The bench is mine.”
He went to sit down, and the man tried to push him out of the way. Then the youth became angry and flung the man aside and sat down in his usual seat. Presently more men fell down the chimney, one after the other, and they fetched with them nine thigh bones and two skulls, and began to play skittles. The youth felt inclined to join in the sport, and he called out, “I say, can I play too?”
“Certainly,” said they.
“Then here goes!” he cried. “The more, the merrier!”
He played with them till ten o’clock, when they disappeared. So he lay down, and soon was fast asleep.
Next morning the king again came to see him, and said, “Well, how did you get on this time?”
“I have been playing skittles,” he answered.
“Didn’t you learn to shiver?” the king asked.
“Not I,” he responded. “I only made merry.”
On the third night he once more was in the enchanted castle sitting on his bench by the fire. “Oh, if I could only learn to shiver!” he said, in great vexation.
When it grew late, six tall men came in carrying a coffin. “Hello there!” said he, “set down your burden and make yourselves comfortable.”
They put the coffin on the floor and he went to it and removed the lid. Inside lay a man. He felt of the man’s hands and face. They were as cold as ice. “I will soon see whether there is any life left in you,” said he, and he picked up the man and sat down with him close by the fire and rubbed his arms to make the blood circulate.
After a time the man grew warm and began to move. “There,” said the youth, “you see I have got you warmed at last.”
But the man rose up and cried, “Now I will strangle you!”
“What!” exclaimed the youth, “is that all the thanks I get? Back you go into your coffin then.”
So saying, he grasped him, threw him in, and fastened down the lid. Then the six men carried the coffin away. “Oh, deary me!” sighed the youth, “I shall never learn to shiver if I stop here all my life.”
Just then a huge man entered the room. He was frightful to look at, very old, with a long white beard. “You miserable wretch!” he cried, “now you shall learn what shivering is, for you shall die.”
“Not so fast,” said the youth. “If I am to die, some one must kill me.”
“I will make short work of you,” declared the old monster.
“Softly, softly!” said the lad. “Don’t boast. Very likely I am stronger than you are.”
“We shall see about that,” said the old man. “Come with me.”
Then he led the way through numberless dark passages to a smithy, took a sledge hammer, and with one blow struck an anvil down into the earth so it was nearly buried out of sight.
“I can better that,” affirmed the youth, and he went to another anvil, took an ax, and with one blow split the anvil half in two.
The old man had come so near to watch that his beard had dropped down on the anvil, and it was wedged into the crevice by the blow of the ax. “Now I have you,” said the youth, “and you will be the one to die.”
Then he seized an iron rod and belabored the old man till the sufferer shrieked for mercy and promised him great riches if he would stop. So the lad pulled out the ax, and the released captive led the way back into the castle and showed the youth three chests of gold in the cellar. “One is for the poor,” he said, “one is for the king, and one is for you.”
The clock struck twelve just as the old man finished speaking, and he disappeared and left the youth alone in the dense darkness of the cellar. “I must manage to get out somehow,” said the lad, and he groped about till he found his way back to the room where he had his fire. There he lay down and went to sleep.
Next morning the king came and said, “Surely you have now learned to shiver.”
“No,” said the youth, “a coffin was brought to me containing a man who was nearly frozen, and when I revived him he wanted to strangle me. Afterward, an old man came who wanted to kill me, but I got the better of him, and he showed me a lot of gold. However, no one can show me what shivering means.”
Then the king said, “You have broken the spell on the castle, and you shall be made a prince and marry my daughter.”
“That is all very fine,” said the youth, “but still I don’t know what shivering is.”
The gold was brought out from the castle cellar, and the marriage was celebrated; but happy as the youth now was, and much as he loved his bride, there yet remained one cause for discontent, and he was always saying: “Oh that I could learn to shiver! Oh that I could learn to shake!”
This became quite a source of vexation to his wife as time went on, and at last her waiting-woman said, “I will help you to teach him the meaning of shivering.”
She went out to a brook that ran through the garden, and got a pail of cold water full of little fishes. At night, when the prince was asleep, his wife took off the coverings and poured the cold water over him. The little fishes flopped all about him. Then he woke up and cried, “Oh, how I am shivering, dear wife, how I am shivering! Now I know what shivering is!”
