The Marvelous Musician

musician.

‘Oh! it’s a Wolf, is it?’ said he. ‘I’ve not the smallest wish for his

society.’

But the Wolf approached him and said:

‘Oh, my dear musician, how beautifully you play! I wish you’d teach me

how it’s done.’

‘That’s easily learned,’ answered the fiddler; ‘you must only do

exactly as I tell you.’

‘Of course I will,’ replied the Wolf. ‘I can promise that you will find

me a most apt pupil.’

So they joined company and went on their way together, and after a time

they came to an old oak tree, which was hollow and had a crack in the

middle of the trunk.

‘Now,’ said the Musician, ‘if you want to learn to fiddle, here’s your

chance. Lay your front paws in this crack.’

The Wolf did as he was told, and the Musician quickly seized a stone,

and wedged both his fore paws so firmly into the crack that he was held

there, a fast prisoner.

‘Wait there till I return,’ said the Fiddler, and he went on his way.

After a time he said to himself again:

‘Time hangs very heavily on my hands when I’m all alone in the wood; I

must try and find a companion.’

So he drew out his fiddle, and fiddled away lustily. Presently a fox

slunk through the trees.

‘Aha! what have we here?’ said the Musician. ‘A fox; well, I haven’t

the smallest desire for his company.’

The Fox came straight up to him and said:

‘My dear friend, how beautifully you play the fiddle; I would like to

learn how you do it.’

‘Nothing easier,’ said the Musician, ‘if you’ll promise to do exactly

as I tell you.’

‘Certainly,’ answered the Fox, ‘you have only to say the word.’

‘Well, then, follow me,’ replied the Fiddler.

When they had gone a bit of the way, they came to a path with high

trees on each side. Here the Musician halted, bent a stout hazel bough

down to the ground from one side of the path, and put his foot on the

end of it to keep it down. Then he bent a branch down from the other

side and said:

‘Give me your left front paw, my little Fox, if you really wish to

learn how it’s done.’

The Fox did as he was told, and the Musician tied his front paw to the

end of one of the branches.

‘Now, my friend,’ he said, ‘give me your right paw.’

This he bound to the other branch, and having carefully seen that his

knots were all secure, he stepped off the ends of the branches, and

they sprang back, leaving the poor Fox suspended in mid-air.

‘Just you wait where you are till I return,’ said the Musician, and he

went on his way again.

Once more he said to himself:

‘Time hangs heavily on my hands when I’m all alone in the wood; I must

try and find another companion.’

So he took out his fiddle and played as merrily as before. This time a

little hare came running up at the sound.

‘Oh! here comes a hare,’ said the Musician; ‘I’ve not the smallest

desire for his company.’

‘How beautifully you play, dear Mr. Fiddler,’ said the little Hare. ‘I

wish I could learn how you do it.’

‘It’s easily learnt,’ answered the Musician; ‘just do exactly as I tell

you.’

‘That I will,’ said the Hare, ‘you will find me a most attentive

pupil.’

They went on a bit together, till they came to a thin part of the wood,

where they found an aspen tree growing. The Musician bound a long cord

round the little Hare’s neck, the other end of which he fastened to the

tree.

‘Now, my merry little friend,’ said the Musician, ‘run twenty times

round the tree.’

The little Hare obeyed, and when it had run twenty times round the

tree, the cord had twisted itself twenty times round the trunk, so that

the poor little beast was held a fast prisoner, and it might bite and

tear as much as it liked, it couldn’t free itself, and the cord only

cut its tender neck.

‘Wait there till I return,’ said the Musician, and went on his way.

In the meantime the Wolf had pulled and bitten and scratched at the

stone, till at last he succeeded in getting his paws out. Full of

anger, he hurried after the Musician, determined when he met him to

tear him to pieces. When the Fox saw him running by, he called out as

loud as he could:

‘Brother Wolf, come to my rescue, the Musician has deceived me too.’

The Wolf pulled the branches down, bit the cord in two, and set the Fox

free. So they went on their way together, both vowing vengeance on the

Musician. They found the poor imprisoned little Hare, and having set

him free also, they all set out to look for their enemy.

During this time the Musician had once more played his fiddle, and had

been more fortunate in the result. The sounds pierced to the ears of a

poor woodman, who instantly left his work, and with his hatchet under

his arm came to listen to the music.

‘At last I’ve got a proper sort of companion,’ said the Musician, ‘for

it was a human being I wanted all along, and not a wild animal.’

And he began playing so enchantingly that the poor man stood there as

if bewitched, and his heart leapt for joy as he listened.

And as he stood thus, the Wolf and Fox and little Hare came up, and the

woodman saw at once that they meant mischief. He lifted his glittering

axe and placed himself in front of the Musician, as much as to say: ‘If

you touch a hair of his head, beware, for you will have to answer for

it to me.’

Then the beasts were frightened, and they all three ran back into the

wood, and the Musician played the woodman one of his best tunes, by way

of thanks, and then continued his way.[32]

[32] Grimm.