Iron John Chapter 3.

Then the king's son left the forest, and walked by beaten and unbeaten paths ever onwards until at length he reached a great city. There he looked for work, but could find none, and he had learned nothing by which he could help himself. At length, he went to the palace and asked if they would take him in.The people about court did not know what use the could make of him, but they liked him, and told him to stay. At length the cook took him into his service, and said he might carry


wood and water, and rake the cinders together.

Iron John Chapter 4

Once when it happened that no one else was at hand, the cook ordered the boy to carry the food to the royal table, but because the boy did not want his golden hair to be seen, he kept his tarboosh on. Such a thing as that had never happened in the king's presence, and he said "When you come to the royal table you must take your cap off". He answered "Ah Lord, I cannot, I have a sore place on my head." The king called the cook up, scolded him, and demanded how he could have taken such a boy as that into his service; and told him to fire the boy and get him out of his castle.

Iron John Chapter 5

The cook however, had pity on the youngster and exchanged him for the gardener s boy.

Now the boy had to set out plants in the garden,and water them, chop with hoe and spade, and let wind and bad weather do what they wished.

Once in Summer when he was working in the garden by himself, it got so hot that he pulled his head covering off, so that the breeze would cool his head. When the sun touched his head, his hair glowed andblazed out so brightly that beams of sunlight went all the way into the bedroom of the king s daughter, and she leapt up to see what that could be. She spied the boy outside and called to him "Boy, bring me a batch of flowers!" He quickly put his tarboosh back on, picked some wild flowers for her, and tied them in a bunch. as he started up the stairs with them, the gardener met him, and said, "What are you doing bringing the king s daughter such ordinary flowers1 get moving and pick another bouquet, the best we have and the most beautiful."

"No, no", the boy answered, the wild flowers have a stronger fragrance and they will please her more."

When the boy walked into the king s daughter s room, she said, "Take Your headthing off, it isn't proper for you to wear it in my presence."

He replied, "I don't dare do that, I have the mange you know."

She however grabbed the tarboosh and yanked it off; his golden hair tumbled down round his shoulders, and it was magnificent to look at. He started out the door at a run but she held him by the arm and gabe him a handful of gold coins. He took them and left, but took no stock in them; in fact he brought the coins to the gardener and said, "I'm giving these to your children - they can use them to play with."

The next day the king's daughter again called the boy to her and told him to bring her some more wild flowers. When he walked in, she reached for his little hat and would have torn it away, but he held onto it with both hands.

Once more she gave him a handful of gold coins, but he refused to keep them and gave them to the gardener as playthings for his children.

The third day things went the same way: she couldn't manage to get his hat off and he wouldn't accept the gold coins.

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