Iron John. Chapter 5

The cook, however, had pity on the youngster and exchanged him for the 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 woild cool his head. When the sun touched his head, his hair glazed 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 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 flowers? Get moving and pick another bouquet, the best we have and the most beautiful."

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

When the boy walked into her room, the King s daughter said, 'Take your headthing off, it isn t proper for you into my presence.'

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

She however grabbed the tarboosh and yanked it off; his golden hair tumbled down around 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 gave him a handful of gold coins. He took them and left, but put no stock in them; in fact he bought 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 her to bring her some wild flowers. When he walked in with them, 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. (Typist s note: the boy TAKES the gold coins but he doesn t KEEP them, gives them to the gardener s children instead.)


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