THERE once lived a king and queen who for a long time had no children, but at last a baby boy came to the queen while the king was away in a far country. The queen would not name the boy till the king came back. "For the present," said she, "we will just call him Nix Nought Nothing."        -

His father was long in coming, and the boy grew to a fine, bonny lad. At last the king left the far country and journeyed homeward. On his way he came to a big river that he must cross, and it was very deep and rapid. He feared to attempt the passage, and while he stood considering what he should do a giant came to him and said, "I will carry you over."

"And what pay do you want?" asked the king. "Oh, give me Nix Nought Nothing," replied the giant.

The king did not know he had a son of that name and he thought the giant meant he would make no charge at all. So the king laughed and said, "I'll give you what you ask and my thanks into the bargain."

Then the giant took him up on his back and carried him across the water. The king arrived at his castle, finally, and he was very happy to see his wife again and to find that he had a little son. "I have not given the child any name yet," said the queen, "and we have been calling him Nix Nought Nothing till you should come home."

The king was much distressed. "What have I done?" he cried. "I promised to give Nix Nought Nothing to a giant who carried me across a river."

The king and queen felt very sad, but they said, "When the giant comes for our son we will give him the boy of the woman who takes care of our hens and ducks, for her boy is just about the same age as ours, and the giant will never know the difference."

 At daybreak the next morning the giant arrived, and the king had to be roused up out of a sound sleep to attend to him. He kept the giant waiting till he could send out and get the poultry-keeper's son, whom he dressed in a suit of his own son's clothes and then turned him over to the giant.

Off went the giant with the lad on his shoulder. He travelled for several hours without a pause, but at last he sat down on a big stone to rest, and said, "Hidge, hodge, on my back, what time of day is it?"

The boy replied, a It is the time that my mother takes up the eggs for the queen's breakfast."

"What!" exclaimed the giant, "then you are not the king's son. In that case we will return at once, for I am determined to have Nix Nought Nothing and no other!"

Away he went at a tremendous rate to the king's castle. "This boy is the poultry keeper's son!" he shouted angrily when he arrived, and had summoned the king before him. "You must give me your own son as you promised."

But instead, the king gave him the gardener's boy, and the giant strode off with the lad on his shoulder. Finally he came to the big stone again and sat down to rest, and he said, "Hidge, hodge, on my back, what time of day is it?"

The gardener's boy replied, "Sure, it's the time that my mother takes up the vegetables for the queen's dinner."

The giant saw that he had been deceived once more and he was as angry as could be. Without delay he returned to the king's castle. "I will destroy you and all your household if you do not give me Nix Nought Nothing this time," said he to the king.

So the king had to give up his own son, and the giant marched off with the boy on his shoulder. When they came to the big stone and the giant had sat down to rest he said, "Hidge, hodge, on my back, what time of day is it?"

"It is the time that my mother the queen sits down to supper," replied the boy.

"Ah!" said the giant, "I have the right one at last," and he took Nix Nought Nothing to his own house, and there the boy dwelt till he was a young man.

Then the giant one day called Nix Nought Nothing to him and said, "You are now grown up and it is time you did something besides the little tasks I have given you hitherto. Yes, you shall have work that is work. Come with me."

The giant led the way to a stable. "This stable of mine is seven miles long and seven miles broad," he explained, "and it has not been cleaned for seven years. You must clean it tomorrow, or I will eat you for supper tomorrow night."

The lad determined to do the best he could, and he was up before sunrise the next day and at work in the stable. By and by a princess whom the giant had caught somewhere, and whom he held a prisoner, came out to the stable with breakfast for Nix Nought Nothing. The two had long been companions in trouble, and they were very fond of each other. "Isn't this dreadful!" exclaimed Nix Nought Nothing. "I couldn't finish the job in a lifetime."

"I shall have to help you," said the princess.

"Oh, no!" cried Nix Nought Nothing, "this work is too dirty for you, and besides it would be perfectly hopeless even with your help."

 

 But the princess knew something of magic. She went outside, and, stooping down, rapped three times on the ground with a ring she had on her finger. At once a queer little dwarf king came up out of the earth and stood before her. "Oh, king of the gnomes," said she, "I need your help."

"You have only to tell me in what way I can assist you," responded the king, "and I and my subjects will immediately be at your service."

Then she told about the stable the wicked giant had said must be cleaned that day.

"We will do the work for you," said the king.

He touched his sceptre to the earth and it opened, and down he went out of sight. But he soon was back with thousands of gnome workmen. They swarmed into the stable and in a few hours the job was done.

When the giant came home that night he looked at the stable and said to the prince, "You had help. I will give you a worse task for tomorrow, and if it is not finished by the day's end I shall eat you. There is a lake just beyond the woodland to the east, and it is seven miles long and seven miles broad and seven miles deep. You must remove all the water by to-morrow night, or I shall eat you."

Very early the next day Nix Nought Nothing took a pail, went to the lake and began dipping up and conveying off the water. By and by the princess brought him his breakfast. He could not see that the lake was getting any the less, and he told her how things were.

"Well," said she, "let me see what I can do." She knelt at the water's edge and dipped her ring three times in the water. Immediately a large, handsome fish with a gold crown on its head came swimming to her. "Oh, king of the fishes," said she, "I need your help."

Then she told about the wicked giant and how he had ordered the lake to be emptied. "I and the other fishes will see that this is done at once," said the fish king. "We have an underground passage between the lake and the sea and I can soon call plenty of helpers."

The fish turned and swam away, but in a little while the lake was full of fish, and each fish drank all it could hold and returned to the sea by the underground passage. This work continued until presently not a drop was left.

When the giant came home that night and saw the dry lake bed he was in a rage and said to the young man, "I've a worse job for you tomorrow. In the woodland there is a tree seven miles high, and there are no branches on it till you get nearly to the top, but among those branches are seven nests, each with seven eggs in it, and you must bring down all those eggs without breaking one by tomorrow night or I shall eat you."

Nix Nought Nothing started early the next day to see what he could do, but the tree was so tall and the trunk so big and smooth he could discover no way to climb it. At length the princess arrived with his breakfast. "Ah d "said she, "I'm afraid this task is too difficult even for me. We had better run away."

"Nothing would suit me better," responded the young man, and they started.

On and on they went until evening. Then they heard the giant's heavy footsteps behind them in pursuit. Nix Nought Nothing caught the hand of the princess and they ran as swiftly as they could go, but the giant gained fast. "We're lost," cried Nix Nought Nothing.

"Not yet," said the princess. "Stop a minute."

From her pocket she took a little flask, and turning around poured out its contents on the ground. Immediately, a wave of water rose and grew and grew and rolled away toward the giant. He plunged into it and it engulfed him to his waist. Then it rose to his shoulders. Then it went over his head and he was drowned.

Nix Nought Nothing and the princess now went on and they kept going till it was very dark. Finally they saw on ahead the lighted windows of a castle with several cottages near it. "Here is shelter at last," said the young man. "You wait at one of the cottages while I go to the castle and find out whether we shall be welcome there."

They did not know that they had wandered to the castle of Nix Nought Nothing's father and mother, and they stopped by chance at the cottage of the poultry-keeper. She knew the prince at once, and she was sorry enough to see him, for the king had agreed to adopt her son in case his own son never returned. So, as he was going out of the door after he had left the princess in her care, she put a spell on him whereby, when he entered the castle, he fell down in a sleep that was very like death. The king and queen did all they could to rouse him, but without success, and there was great turmoil at the castle all that night.

The princess wondered that Nix Nought Nothing did not return for her, and at last she lay down on a couch at the poultry-keeper's house and went to sleep. In the morning she asked the poultry-keeper, who had made an early visit at the castle, what had become of her companion.

"He fell asleep as soon as he entered the castle hall," replied the woman, "and no one can rouse him."

"Ah!" exclaimed the princess, "that is your doing, for I saw you making some queer motions behind his back last night. You shall be severely punished for this."

"Forgive me," cried the woman, who now saw that she had been found out. "I'll never harm him again."

"Well," said the princess, "I will forgive you on condition that you let me carry the eggs to the castle for the queen's breakfast."

To this the woman agreed, and presently the princess started for the castle with a basket on her arm. She carried the eggs in to the table where the queen sat ready for her breakfast, but little inclined to eat it in her anxiety about her son. The princess asked if the young man still slept.

"Yes," answered the queen, "and we have almost given up hope of ever rousing him."

"But I think I could bring him out of his sleep," said the princess.

"Is that so?" cried the queen springing to her feet. "Then come with me and you shall try."

They went to the couch where Nix Nought Nothing had been laid, and the princess, bending over him, said:

Then she touched the ring on her finger to each of his eyes, and he awoke. Everyone was now happy and Nix Nought Nothing told all that the princess had done for him. When the king and queen heard of her kindness they took her in their arms and kissed her and said their son should marry her. So, soon afterward, there was a grand wedding, and Nix Nought Nothing and the princess lived happy all their days.