unger:

"Choose as you will what you shall do, and God bless your choice; but
as for me I shall make haste to the court of the king, for nothing
will satisfy me but to serve him and my country."

"Good fortune and a blessing go with you," said the younger brother.
"I, too, should like to serve my country and the king, but I have
neither words nor wit for a king's court. To hammer a shoe from the
glowing iron while the red fire roars and the anvil rings--this is the
work that I do best, and I shall be a blacksmith, even as my father
was before me."

So when he had spoken the two brothers embraced and bade each other
good-bye and went on their ways; nor did they meet again till many a
year had come and gone.

The elder brother rode to the king's court just as he had said he
would; and as time went on he won great honor there and was made one
of the king's counselors.

And the younger brother built himself a blacksmith's shop by the side
of a road and worked there merrily from early morn till the stars
shone at night. He was called the Mighty Blacksmith because of his
strength, and the Honest Blacksmith because he charged no more than
his work was worth, and the Master Blacksmith because no other smith
in the countryside could shoe a horse so well and speedily as he. And
he was envious of nobody, for always as he worked his hammer seemed to
sing to him:

"Cling, clang, cling! Cling, clang, cling!
He who does his very best,
Is fit to serve the king."

Now in those days news came to the king of the country where the two
brothers lived that the duke of the next kingdom had made threats
against him, and against his people; and there was great excitement in
the land.

Some of the king's counselors wanted him to gather his armies and
march at once into the duke's kingdom.

"If we do not make war upon him, he will make war upon us," they said.

But some of the king's counselors loved peace, and among these was the
elder brother, in whom the king had great trust.

"Let me, I pray you, ride to the duke's castle," he said to the king,
"that we may learn from his own lips if he is friend or foe, for much
is told that is not true; and it is easier to begin a fight than it is
to end one."

The king was well pleased with all the elder brother said, and bade
him go.

"But if by the peal of the noon bells on the day before Christmas you
have neither brought nor sent a message of good will from the duke to
m