So the schoolmaster also went home with a very sore back; and when the
third brother, whose name was Taper Tom, because he sat in the ashes and
made tapers out of fir, said he now would go and make the Princess
laugh, the two older brothers turned to him in scorn, for how could he
do what neither of them, the soldier and the schoolmaster, had quite
failed to do? The Princess would not even look at him, he might be sure.

But Taper Tom said that he would try.

But when he came to the court he did not go before the King to say that
he had come to make the Princess laugh. Many there were who were trying
that each day, and there was hardly a well back in all the kingdom by
now, and Taper Tom had no mind to have his own back cut, for they were
cutting the stripes broader and rubbing the salt in harder every day.

So Taper Tom went to the court and asked for work to do. They told him
that there was no work to be done, but he said:

"What, no work--even in the kitchen? I am sure that the cook needs some
one to fetch and carry for her."

"Well, now," said the lord high chamberlain, "that might perhaps be. You
may go to the kitchen and see."

So Taper Tom went to the kitchen and the cook gave him work fetching and
carrying. And every day Taper Tom saw the men who came and went away
with their backs sore.

One morning he was sent to the stream to catch a fish, and he caught a
nice, fat one. As he came back he met a woman leading a goose with
golden feathers by a string tied around its neck.

The old woman wanted a fish, so she asked Taper Tom if he would trade
the fish for the golden goose. "For," she said, "it is a very strange
goose. If you lead it about and anyone lays hands on it, and you say,
'Hang on, if you care to come with us,' he will have to hang on and go
with the goose wherever you lead."

"Then," said Taper Tom, "you may have my fish and I will take your
goose."

So the old woman took the fish, and Taper Tom took the end of the
string in his hand, and the goose followed after.

He had not gone far when he met a goody who looked longingly at the
goose with the golden feathers, and at last she said to Taper Tom: "That
is a very fine goose, and I would like to stroke it."

"All right," said Taper Tom.

So the goody laid her hand on the back of the goose, and Taper Tom said:
"Hang on, if you care to go with us." And the old woman could not take
her hands off the goose, no matter how hard she tried.

T