Read your favourite ebook here.
Grimms’ Fairy Tales
By Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm
Introduction
A certain king had a beautiful garden, and in the garden stood a tree which bore golden apples.
These apples were always counted, and about the time when they began to grow ripe it was
found that every night one of them was gone. The king became very angry at this, and ordered
the gardener to keep watch all night under the tree. The gardener set his eldest son to watch;
but about twelve o’clock he fell asleep, and in the morning another of the apples was missing.
Then the second son was ordered to watch; and at midnight he too fell asleep, and in the
morning another apple was gone. Then the third son offered to keep watch; but the gardener at
xrst would not let him, for fear some harm should come to him: however, at last he consented,
and the young man laid himself under the tree to watch. As the clock struck twelve he heard a
rustling noise in the air, and a bird came yying that was of pure gold; and as it was snapping at
one of the apples with its beak, the gardener’s son jumped up and shot an arrow at it. But the
arrow did the bird no harm; only it dropped a golden feather from its tail, and then yew away.