"Oh," said Jack the Dullard, "I can hardly tell you. How glad the
princess will be!"

"Bah!" said the brothers; "that is nothing but clay out of the ditch."

"Yes, certainly it is," said Jack the Dullard; "and clay of the finest
sort. See, it is so wet, it runs through one's fingers." And he filled
his pocket with the clay.

But his brothers gallopped on till the sparks flew, and consequently
they arrived a full hour earlier at the town-gate than could Jack. Now
at the gate each suitor was provided with a number, and all were
placed in rows immediately on their arrival, six in each row, and so
closely packed together that they could not move their arms; and that
was a prudent arrangement, for they would certainly have come to
blows, had they been able, merely because one of them stood before the
other.

All the inhabitants of the country round about stood in great crowds
around the castle, almost under the very windows, to see the princess
receive the suitors; and as each stepped into the hall, his power of
speech seemed to desert him, like the light of a candle that is blown
out. Then the princess would say, "He is of no use! away with him out
of the hall!"

At last the turn came for that brother who knew the dictionary by
heart; but he did not know it now; he had absolutely forgotten it
altogether; and the boards seemed to re-echo with his footsteps, and
the ceiling of the hall was made of looking-glass, so that he saw
himself standing on his head; and at the window stood three clerks and
a head clerk, and every one of them was writing down every single word
that was uttered, so that it might be printed in the newspapers, and
sold for a penny at the street corners. It was a terrible ordeal, and
they had moreover made such a fire in the stove, that the room seemed
quite red hot.

"It is dreadfully hot here!" observed the first brother.

"Yes," replied the princess, "my father is going to roast young
pullets to-day."

"Baa!" there he stood like a baa-lamb. He had not been prepared for a
speech of this kind; and had not a word to say, though he intended to
say something witty. "Baa!"

"He is of no use!" said the princess. "Away with him."

And he was obliged to go accordingly. And now the second brother came
in.

"It is terribly warm here!" he observed.

"Yes, we're roasting pullets to-day," replied the princess.

"What--what were you--were you pleased to ob----" stammered he--and
all the clerks wrote