uck his heels into its
side, and went rattling down the high-road like a hurricane.

'Hoppetty hop! what a ride!' Here I come!' shouted Blockhead-Hans,
singing so that the echoes were roused far and near. But his brothers
were riding slowly in front. They were not speaking, but they were
thinking over all the good things they were going to say, for everything
had to be thought out.

'Hullo!' bawled Blockhead-Hans, 'here I am! Just look what I found on
the road!'--and he showed them a dead crow which he had picked up.

'Blockhead!' said his brothers, 'what are you going to do with it?'

'With the crow? I shall give it to the Princess!'

'Do so, certainly!' they said, laughing loudly and riding on.

'Slap! bang! here I am again! Look what I have just found! You don't
find such things every day on the road!' And the brothers turned round
to see what in the world he could have found.

'Blockhead!' said they, 'that is an old wooden shoe without the top! Are
you going to send that, too, to the Princess?'

'Of course I shall!' returned Blockhead-Hans; and the brothers laughed
and rode on a good way.

'Slap! bang! here I am!' cried Blockhead-Hans; 'better and better--it is
really famous!'

'What have you found now?' asked the brothers.

'Oh,' said Blockhead-Hans, 'it is really too good! How pleased the
Princess will be!'

'Why!' said the brothers, 'this is pure mud, straight from the ditch.'

'Of course it is!' said Blockhead-Hans, 'and it is the best kind! Look
how it runs through one's fingers!' and, so saying, he filled his pocket
with the mud.

But the brothers rode on so fast that dust and sparks flew all around,
and they reached the gate of the town a good hour before Blockhead-Hans.
Here came the suitors numbered according to their arrival, and they were
ranged in rows, six in each row, and they were so tightly packed
that they could not move their arms. This was a very good thing, for
otherwise they would have torn each other in pieces, merely because the
one was in front of the other.

All the country people were standing round the King's throne, and were
crowded together in thick masses almost out of the windows to see the
Princess receive the suitors; and as each one came into the room all his
fine phrases went out like a candle!

'It doesn't matter!' said the Princess. 'Away! out with him!'

At last she came to the row in which the brother who knew the dictionary
by heart was, but he did not kno