ad not yet bought new ones; next day he appeared in
respectable boots and fine clothes. Now, instead of a common soldier
he had become a noble lord, and the people told him about all the
grand doings of the town and the King, and what a beautiful Princess
his daughter was.

'How can one get to see her?' asked the Soldier.

'She is never to be seen at all!' they told him; 'she lives in a great
copper castle, surrounded by many walls and towers! No one except the
King may go in or out, for it is prophesied that she will marry a
common soldier, and the King cannot submit to that.'

'I should very much like to see her,' thought the Soldier; but he
could not get permission.

Now he lived very gaily, went to the theatre, drove in the King's
garden, and gave the poor a great deal of money, which was very nice
of him; he had experienced in former times how hard it is not to have
a farthing in the world. Now he was rich, wore fine clothes, and made
many friends, who all said that he was an excellent man, a real
nobleman. And the Soldier liked that. But as he was always spending
money, and never made any more, at last the day came when he had
nothing left but two shillings, and he had to leave the beautiful
rooms in which he had been living, and go into a little attic under
the roof, and clean his own boots, and mend them with a
darning-needle. None of his friends came to visit him there, for there
were too many stairs to climb.

It was a dark evening, and he could not even buy a light. But all at
once it flashed across him that there was a little end of tinder in
the tinder-box, which he had taken from the hollow tree into which the
Witch had helped him down. He found the box with the tinder in it; but
just as he was kindling a light, and had struck a spark out of the
tinder-box, the door burst open, and the dog with eyes as large as
saucers, which he had seen down in the tree, stood before him and
said:

'What does my lord command?'

'What's the meaning of this?' exclaimed the Soldier. 'This is a pretty
kind of tinder-box, if I can get whatever I want like this. Get me
money!' he cried to the dog, and hey, presto! he was off and back
again, holding a great purse full of money in his mouth.

Now the Soldier knew what a capital tinder-box this was. If he rubbed
once, the dog that sat on the chest of copper appeared; if he rubbed
twice, there came the dog that watched over the silver chest; and if
he rubbed three times,