Читать книгу A Selection from the Norse Tales for the Use of Children онлайн

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“I can tell you one soon enough,” said True; and then he told the king what he had done to cure his own eyes, and the king set off that very afternoon to the lime-tree, as you may fancy, and his eyes were quite cured as soon as he rubbed them with the dew which was on the leaves in the morning. From that time forth there was no one whom the king held so dear as True, and he had to be with him wherever he went, both at home and abroad.

So one day as they were walking together in the orchard, the king said, “I can’t tell how it is that I can’t! there isn’t a man in England who spends so much on his orchard as I, and yet I can’t get one of the trees to bear so much as a crab.”

“Well! well!” said True; “if I may have what lies three times twisted round your orchard and men to dig it up, your orchard will bear well enough.”

Yes! the king was quite willing, so True got men and began to dig, and at last he dug up the whole gold chain. Now True was a rich man, far richer indeed than the king himself, but still the king was well pleased, for his orchard bore so that the boughs of the trees hung down to the ground, and such sweet apples and pears nobody had ever tasted.