our majesty, I didn't make them crowns at all. It was a
big fellow that took service with me yesterday.' 'Well, daughter, will
you marry the fellow that made these crowns?' 'Let me see them first,
father,' said she; but when she examined them she knew them right well,
and guessed it was her true love that sent them. 'I will marry the man
that these crowns came from,' says she.

'Well,' says the king to the eldest of the two princes, 'go up to the
smith's forge, take my best coaches, and bring home the bridegroom.' He
did not like doing this, he was so proud, but he could not refuse. When
he came to the forge he saw the prince standing at the door, and
beckoned him over to the coach. 'Are you the fellow,' says he, 'that
made these crowns?' 'Yes,' says the other. 'Then,' says he, 'maybe you'd
give yourself a brushing, and get into that coach; the king wants to see
you. I pity the princess.' The young prince got into the carriage, and
while they were on the way he opened the snuff-box, and out walked
_Seven Inches_, and stood on his thigh. 'Well,' says he, 'what trouble
is on you now?' 'Master,' says the other, 'please let me go back to my
forge, and let this carriage be filled with paving stones.' No sooner
said than done. The prince was sitting in his forge, and the horses
wondered what was after happening to the carriage.

When they came into the palace yard, the king himself opened the
carriage door, for respect to his new son-in-law. As soon as he turned
the handle, a shower of small stones fell on his powdered wig and his
silk coat, and down he fell under them. There was great fright and some
laughter, and the king, after he wiped the blood from his forehead,
looked very cross at the eldest prince. 'My lord,' says he, 'I'm very
sorry for this _accident_, but I'm not to blame. I saw the young smith
get into the carriage, and we never stopped a minute since.' 'It's
uncivil you were to him. Go,' says he to the other prince, 'and bring
the young smith here, and be polite.' 'Never fear,' says he.

But there's some people that couldn't be good-natured if they tried, and
not a bit civiller was the new messenger than the old, and when the king
opened the carriage door a second time, it's a shower of mud that came
down on him. 'There's no use,' says he, 'going on this way. The fox
never got a better messenger than himself.'

So he changed his clothes, and washed himself, and out he set to the
prince's forge and asked him t