One evening it became very dark, and he couldn’t even buy himself a candle. But then he remembered there was a little stump of one in the tinderbox that the hag had asked him to take from the hollow tree. So he took out the tinderbox and the candle stump, and just as he struck the flint, causing sparks to fly from the stone, the door sprang open, and the dog that had eyes as big as teacups and whom he had seen beneath the tree, stood in front of him and said, “What does my master command?”
“What’s this!” cried the soldier. “This is certainly an interesting tinderbox if it will give me what I want like this! Get me some money,” he said to the dog, and presto it was gone! Then presto it returned and held a big bag full of coins in its mouth.
Now the soldier understood what a wonderful tinderbox it was. If he struck once, the dog who sat on the chest with copper coins came. If he struck twice, the dog who had silver money appeared, and if he struck three times, the one with the gold coins came.-The soldier moved back into his handsome rooms and wore beautiful clothes once again. Suddenly all his friends recognized him, and once more they were so terribly fond of him.
Then one day he thought: it’s really odd that no one gets to see the princess. She’s supposed to be so beautiful, they all say, but what good is that when she always sits inside the big copper castle with all the towers?—Can’t I get to see her somehow? —Where’s my tinderbox! And then he struck the flint, and presto the dog with eyes as big as teacups came.
“Even though it’s the middle of the night,” the soldier remarked, “I very much want to see the princess, just for a little moment!”
The dog was out the door at once, and before the soldier could think about it, the dog was back again with the princess. She sat sleeping on the dog’s back and was so lovely that it was clear for all to see that she was a real princess. The soldier couldn’t help himself. He had to kiss her, for he was a true soldier.
Then the dog ran back with the princess, but when morning came, and the king and queen were having tea, the princess said that she was disturbed by a strange dream that she had in the night about a dog and a soldier. She had ridden on the dog, and the soldier had kissed her.
“That’s quite some story!” said the queen.
So one of the old ladies-in-waiting was ordered to keep watch over the princess the next night to see if it was a real dream, or what it could be.
The soldier longed so frightfully to see the lovely princess again and had the dog go to her in the night. The dog took her and ran as fast as he could, but the old lady-in-waiting put on high boots and ran just as fast after them. When she saw that they disappeared into a big house, she thought, “Now I know where it is,” and she marked a large cross on the door with a piece of chalk. Then she hurried home and went to bed, and the dog also came back with the princess. When he saw the cross on the door where the soldier lived, however, he took a piece of chalk and marked crosses on all the doors in the whole town, and that was smart of him because now the lady-in-waiting could not find the right door. Indeed, there were crosses on all of them.
Early in the morning the king and queen, the old lady-in-waiting, and all the officers came to see where the princess had been.
“There it is!” said the king, when he saw the first door with a cross on it.
“No, there it is, my dear,” said the queen, who saw another door with a cross on it.
“But there’s one, and there’s one!” they all cried out. Wherever they looked, there were crosses on the doors. So then they realized that there was no use in searching further.
However, the queen was a very wise woman, who could do more than just ride in a coach. She took her big golden scissors, cut a large piece of silk into pieces, and sewed a lovely little bag. She filled it with fine little grains of buckwheat, tied it to the back of the princess, and when that was done, she cut a little hole in the bag, so the grains could sprinkle out wherever the princess would go.
During the night the dog came again, took the princess on his back, and ran with her to the soldier, who was so very fond of her, and dearly wished he were a prince so that he might marry her.
When the dog ran back to the castle with the princess, he failed to notice that the grain had spilled out all the way from the castle to the soldier’s window. In the morning the king and queen could easily see where their daughter had been, and they ordered the soldier to be arrested and put into prison.
There he sat. Oh, how dark and boring it was! And then they told him: “Tomorrow you’ll be hanged.” That wasn’t pleasant to hear. Moreover, he had forgotten his tinderbox which he had left at the inn. In the morning, through the bars of the little window, he could see people hurrying from all parts of the town to see him hanged. He heard the drums and saw the soldiers marching. All the people were running along, and among them was also a shoemaker’s boy wearing a leather apron and slippers. He was running so fast that one of his slippers flew off and landed right by the wall where the soldier was peering through the iron bars.
“Hey, boy! Don’t be in such a hurry,” the soldier told him. “Nothing will happen until I get there! So, if you’ll run to where I live and bring me my tinderbox, I’ll give you four silver coins. But don’t let the grass grow under your feet.”
The shoemaker’s boy was eager to get the four silver coins and rushed off to fetch the tinderbox. He gave it to the soldier, and—Well, listen to what happened!
Outside the town a big gallows had been built, and all around stood the soldiers and thousands of people. The king and queen sat on a beautiful throne right opposite the judge and the entire council.
The soldier was already standing up on the ladder, but when they wanted to place the noose around his neck, he said that a condemned man was always granted a last wish before his punishment. He wanted so very much to smoke his pipe—it would be the last smoke he would get in this world.
The king didn’t want to deny him this wish, and so the soldier took his tinderbox and struck the flint, one, two, three! And there stood all three dogs: the one with eyes like teacups, the one with eyes like mill wheels, and the one who had eyes as big as the Round Tower!
“Help me!” the soldier cried out. “Don’t let them hang me!”
Immediately the dogs tore into the judges and all the councilors. They grabbed some by their legs and some by their noses and threw them high up into the air so that they fell down and were dashed to pieces.
“Not me!” screamed the king, but the largest dog took both him and the queen and threw them after all the others. Now the soldiers became frightened, and all the people shouted, “Little soldier, you will be our king and marry the beautiful princess!”
Then they placed the soldier in the king’s coach, and all three dogs danced in front and roared “hurrah!” and boys whistled through their fingers, and the soldiers presented arms. The princess came out of the copper castle and became the queen and was very pleased with that! The wedding lasted for eight days, and the dogs sat at the table in wide-eyed wonder.
NOTE
1. Astronomical observatory, 118 feet tall, in the heart of Copenhagen. King Christian IV laid the first stone in 1637; the observatory was completed in 1642.