well, my dear Fox, I’ll have the guest chambers put in readiness for your master’s visit and I’ll have all these, my finest clothes, laid out for him. You won’t disappoint me, will you?”
“I’ll do my best,” the Fox promised.
With that he bade the King a civil good day and ran home to Mikko.
The next day as the Princess was peeping out of an upper window of the castle, she saw a young woodsman approaching accompanied by a Fox. He was a fine stalwart youth and the Princess, who knew from the presence of the Fox that he must be Mikko, gave a long sigh and confided to her serving maid:
“I think I could fall in love with that young man if he really were only a woodsman!”
Later when she saw him arrayed in her father’s finest clothes – which looked so well on Mikko that no one even recognized them as the King’s – she lost her heart completely and when Mikko was presented to her she blushed and trembled just as any ordinary girl might before a handsome young man.
All the Court was equally delighted with Mikko. The ladies went into ecstasies over his modest manners, his fine figure, and the gorgeousness of his clothes, and the old graybeard Councilors, nodding their heads in approval, said to each other:
“Nothing of the coxcomb about this young fellow! In spite of his great wealth see how politely he listens to us when we talk!”
The next day the Fox went privately to the King, and said:
“My master is a man of few words and quick judgment. He bids me tell you that your daughter, the Princess, pleases him mightily and that, with your approval, he will make his addresses to her at once.”
The King was greatly agitated and began:
“My dear Fox – ”
But the Fox interrupted him to say:
“Think the matter over carefully and give me your decision to-morrow.”
So the King consulted with the Princess and with his Councilors and in a short time the marriage was arranged and the wedding ceremony actually performed!
“Didn’t I tell you?” the Fox said, when he and Mikko were alone after the wedding.
“Yes,” Mikko acknowledged, “you did promise that I should marry the Princess. But, tell me, now that I am married what am I to do? I can’t live on here forever with my wife.”
“Put your mind at rest,” the Fox said. “I’ve thought of everything. Just do as I tell you and you’ll have nothing to regret. To-night say to the King: ‘It is now only fitting that you should visit me and see for yourself the sort of castle over which your daughter is hereafter to be mistress!’”
When Mikko said this to the King, the King was overjoyed for now that the marriage had actually taken place he was wondering whether he hadn’t perhaps been a little hasty. Mikko’s words reassured him and he eagerly accepted the invitation.
On the morrow the Fox said to Mikko:
“Now I’ll run on ahead and get things ready for you.”
“But where are you going?” Mikko said, frightened at the thought of being deserted by his little friend.
The Fox drew Mikko aside and whispered softly:
“A few days’ march from here there is a very gorgeous castle belonging to a wicked old dragon who is known as the Worm. I think the Worm’s castle would just about suit you.”
“I’m sure it would,” Mikko agreed. “But how are we to get it away from the Worm?”
“Trust me,” the Fox said. “All you need do is this: lead the King and his courtiers along the main highway until by noon to-morrow you reach a crossroads. Turn there to the left and go straight on until you see the tower of the Worm’s castle. If you meet any men by the wayside, shepherds or the like, ask them whose men they are and show no surprise at their answer. So now, dear master, farewell until we meet again at your beautiful castle.”
The little Fox trotted off at a smart pace and Mikko and the Princess and the King attended by the whole Court followed in more leisurely fashion.
The little Fox, when he had left the main highway at the crossroads, soon met ten woodsmen with axes over their shoulders. They were all dressed in blue smocks of the same cut.
“Good day,” the Fox said politely. “Whose men are you?”
“Our master is known as the Worm,” the woodsmen told him.
“My poor, poor lads!” the Fox said, shaking his head sadly.
“What’s the matter?” the woodsmen asked.
For a few moments the Fox pretended to be too overcome with emotion to speak. Then he said:
“My poor lads, don’t you know that the King is coming with a great force to destroy the Worm and all his people?”
The woodsmen were simple fellows and this news threw them into great consternation.
“Is there no way for us to escape?” they asked.
The Fox put his paw to his head and thought.
“Well,” he said at last, “there is one way you might escape and that is by telling every one who asks you that you are the Mighty Mikko’s men. But if you value your lives never again say that your master is the Worm.”
“We are Mighty Mikko’s men!” the woodsmen at once began repeating over and over. “We are Mighty Mikko’s men!”
A little farther on the road the Fox met twenty grooms, dressed in the same blue smocks, who were tending a hundred beautiful horses. The Fox talked to the twenty grooms as he had talked to the woodsmen and before he left them they, too, were shouting:
“We are Mighty Mikko’s men!”
Next the Fox came to a huge flock of a thousand sheep tended by thirty shepherds all dressed in the Worm’s blue smocks. He stopped and talked to them until he had them roaring out:
“We are Mighty Mikko’s men!”
Then the Fox trotted on until he reached the castle of the Worm. He found the Worm himself inside lolling lazily about. He was a huge dragon and had been a great warrior in his day. In fact his castle and his lands and his servants and his possessions had all been won in battle. But now for many years no one had cared to fight him and he had grown fat and lazy.
“Good day,” the Fox said, pretending to be very breathless and frightened. “You’re the Worm, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” the dragon said, boastfully, “I am the great Worm!”
The Fox pretended to grow more agitated.
“My poor fellow, I am sorry for you! But of course none of us can expect to live forever. Well, I must hurry along. I thought I would just stop and say good-by.”
Made uneasy by the Fox’s words, the Worm cried out:
“Wait just a minute! What’s the matter?”
The
