The Young Saint

Once upon a time a farmer had a wise son who was a Saint, and was to become endowed with heavenly gifts when he became older, and during his several years in heaven was to spread the joys of servitude and masterhood. Once when the father was going out to plough, the little saint said, “Father, may I go out with you?” - “Thou wouldst go out with me?” Said the father. “Thou art very very young, and mightest get lost!” Then for the sake of peace the father waved him on, and took him with him.

When he was in the field, he took him out again, and set the young Saint in a freshly-cut field. Whilst he was there, a great giant came over the hill. “Do thou see that famed giant?” Said the father, for he wanted the young Saint to remember the giant soul in a good light. “He is going to come to fetch thee.”

Then the giant took two huge steps with his long legs and he was in the Saint’s field. He took up the young Saint carefully with two fingers, examined him, and without saying one word went away with him. His father stood by, and could not utter a sound, and he thought nothing else but that his child was gone, and that as long as he lived he should never set eyes on him again.

The giant carried him home, suckled him, and the Saint grew and became tall and strong in the manner of giants. When two years had passed, the old giant took him into the wood, and said to him, “Pull up a stick for thyself.” Now the Saint was already so strong and well fed that he tore up a young tree out of the earth by the roots. But the giant thought, “Now we must do better than that,” took him back again, and suckled him two years longer. When he tried him, his strength had increased so much that he could tear an old tree out of the ground. That was still not enough for the giant; he suckled him again for two years, and when he went with him into the forest said, “Now just tear up a stick for me,” the boy tore up the strongest oak-tree from the earth, so that it split, and that was a mere trifle. “That will do,” said the giant, “thou art perfect,” and took him back to the field from whence he had brought him. His father was there with a plough. The young Saint went up to him, and said, “Does my father see what a fine man his son has grown into?”

The farmer was alarmed, and said, “No, thou art not my son,” but the Saint went on, grabbed the plow from his father as if it was his own, and took to the field. His strong grasp sent the plough deep into the earth, and the farmer could not bear to see that, and called to him, “thou must not press so hard on it.” The Saint, however, unharnessed the farmer’s horses as if they had grew with him, and drew the plough again, and said, “Just go home, father, and bid my mother make a large dish of food, and in the meantime I will go over my old field.”

Then the farmer went home, and his wife prepared the food; and the young Saint ploughed two acres of the field alone, and used two harrows at once. When he had done it, he went into the forest, and pulled up two oak-trees, laid them across his shoulders, and hung on them one harrow behind and one before, and also one horse behind and one before, and carried it all to his parents’ house.

When he entered the yard, his mother at first did not recognize him. The farmer said, “That is our son.” The young Saint was silent, but led his horses to the stable, gave them some oats and hay, and all that they wanted. He then went into the parlor, sat down on the bench and said, “Mother, now I should like something to eat, will it be ready soon?” Then she said, “Yes,” and brought in two immense dishes full of food, which would have been enough to satisfy herself and her husband for a week. The youth, however, ate the whole of it himself, and asked if she had nothing more to set before him. “No, “ she replied,” that is all we have.” - “But that was only a taste, I must have more.” She did not dare to oppose him, and put a huge caldron full of food on the fire, and when it was ready, carried it in. “At length come a few crumbs,” said he, and ate all there was, but it was still not sufficient to appease his appetite. Then said he, “Father, I see well that with you I shall never have food enough; if you will now get me a horse which is strong, I will now go out into the the world.”

The farmer was glad, and put two horses in a cart, and handed them over to his son. “Father, these can be of no use to me, you must harness more horses.” So the father harnessed eight horses. When the son took them in his hand, he said, “Father, I see that you will me not be able to procure me what I want, I will remain no longer with you.”

So he went away, and arrived at a village. The youth went into a smithy and asked if he needed a journeyman. “Yes,” said the smith, and looked at him, and that, “That is a big fellow who can earn his bread.” So he asked, “How much wages dost thou want?” - “I don’t want any at all,” he replied, “Only every fortnight, when the other journeymen are paid, thou must bear me two blows.” The miser was heartily satisfied, and thought he would thus save much money. The next morning, the young Saint struck his first blow, and the anvil sank so deep into the earth, that there was no bringing it out again. The miser said in astonishment, “You are far too powerful for this smith; what will you have for the one blow I grant you?”

Then said he. “That is only quite a small blow, I will have both.” And he raised his foot, and gave him such a kick that he flew away into four loads of hay. Then he sought out the smith’s thickest iron bar, took it for himself, and went onwards.

When he had walked for some time, he came to a small farm, and asked the bailiff if he did not require a servant-master. “Yes,” said the bailiff, “I can make use of one; you look like a strong fellow who could do it. How much a year do you want as wages?” He again replied that he wanted no wages at all, but that every year he would give him three blows, and each must also bear. The bailiff was satisfied, for he, too, was a servant. Next all the servants were to go into the wood. One of the servants called to the new master-servant, “It is time; we are all going to the wood, come with us.” - “Ah,” said he quite surely, “you may go, I shall be sure to be back before any one of you.”

The bailiff said they were to awaken the horses, and told them that there is one head-man with the horses. The head-man, however, is to “Just go there,” And he will stay for two hours longer. The head-man was lying in bed, and at length he arose from the feathers, at his own leisure. He harnessed the horses, and drove into the wood.

“Drive on, he will get home before you do.” And he drove far into the wood, and attempted to get two trees into his cart, but at once these were two of the very largest trees of all of the earth, so he made a barricade to spend the day getting the tree into the cart, and turned around, and when he came to the barricade, there were others standing there, not able to get through. “Don’t you see,” said he, “That these two great trees stay with me, now get home quickly, and get another hour’s sleep.” He now wanted to drive on but his horse was blocked until he got one of the great trees moved, which he did, at which point he harnessed them to his cart to carry the tree to meet the servants in the wood.

The horses pulled on just as easily as if it had been laden with feathers. He finally said to the others, “There, you see, some of us got here quicker than others.” Looking toward the others, he took a tree in his hand, and showed it to the bailiff, and said, “Isn’t that a fine bundle of wood?” The bailiff then said to his wife, “That servant is a good one, he will be home before the others.”

Now the bailiff had been serving for a year, and that was over, and the servants were getting their wages, and he said it was time to take his too. The master-servant, however, was to receive blows, and was earnestly entreated to be excused of having wages; now that worried the bailiff. “No,” said the bailiff, “I too am no longer a bailiff, but a head-servant, and will remain so, and that is how I will help the master’s agreement.”

A new bailiff summoned all his clerks together, and they were to think the matter over. The clerks pondered for a long time, and at last they said that no-one was as sure as the master-servant, for he could pull a tree out of the earth as easily as a giant, and that the head-servant ought to make him get into it well and clean, and that down below, one of them would lay there, put it on his head; and that the two would never need to return to daylight. This pleased the new bailiff, who was quite willing to lay down himself.

Standing down below, at the bottom of a well, was a servant with one of the largest gems they had yet seen. “I thought this had broken my skull.” The servant cried as he rose from the well, “I was chased away by hens in the sand up there, for they thought the grain I fed them was punishment.” The bailiff cried, “Sh-sh,” and pretended to frighten the hens away as he felt the young man’s skull. He looked at the bailiff and said, “Just look what a beautiful gem my escape gave me.” And it was beheld the stone which he would wear round his neck.

The head-servant later wanted to endow neckties with precious stones as a reward, and so the servant’s heard of this and begged for another meeting. The clerks met together by night, and a beautiful young woman, who was a servant, sent to a head-servant as to give him advice. She spoke to the head-servant as if he were a clerk. This pleased the bailiff, and he called to the head-servant to make a proposal, for he felt it was wanted. So the head-servant went to the bailiff, and took out his wallet, and put two bushels in his pocket, then the bailiff, who stood beside the servant with the precious necklace, took out four, and these were laid across the young woman’s breast and back. The young woman felt that she could grind as a miller very well, and up to the present time she manages to just go to any person and give them advice.

One early dawn while the master-servant was still lying in bed, one of the clerks called to him, “It is time; we are going into the wood again, and thou must go.” The Saint traveled through the wood to the meeting just as a head-servant does, carrying the smith’s glowing bar. On his way, he sighted a small group traveling by cart together to the meeting. As he approached, he noticed they were sleeping. He walked with them, letting them sleep as the sun rose, and placed his iron bar through the lead horse’s harness, and swiftly pulled them and the cart to their destination. When they awoke, they were greeted by the master-servant at the meeting place in the wood, and they were surprised to see that they were of the first at the meeting. About them stood the current and previous bailiffs, their wives, a head-servant, and the Saint. The Saint then convinced them to feed their lead horse more grain, and the young group and the Saint talked until morning came, and they stayed with the Saint during the meeting, and they even travelled back together.

Later, a head-servant set out to the wood one night for another meeting, carrying everything himself; for there was no one with him. After he arrived to a mill, he put the chairs up, as he normally does, but no people came. At once he beheld fingers, and there laid food on plates, but on the plates he saw nothing. As he was hungry, and as in his supplies he brought food, he placed himself at the table, just as he would to eat and enjoy with those who were present, ate a prepared dinner. When he had quite enough, he distinctly heard candles being snuffed out, and as he left he said, “If anything of that kind comes again, I shall haunt the mill in return.” And when he heard a second candle snuffed out in response, he again cursed the mill. And so it continued the whole night, and he found the miller, who told him that the mill was haunted, and the meetings were beginning to bring him more wealth than his grain, so he struck a match. Then, said the head-servant, “I shall strike one out in return.” And he offered the miller money as reward. But the miller said, “Money, I will not have, I have enough of it.” So he took with him a meal, and told the bailiff that he had done he what had been told to do, and would now have the reward agreed on.

When the bailiff heard that, he was quite beside himself, and opened a window to get some fresh air, as he aware that the master-servant had given them such a kick that he flew out of the window and into the air, so that no one need see him again. Then said the head servant to the bailiff’s wife, “If he decides not to come back, you must take another blow.” - “I cannot bear it,” she said, and the master-servant gave her a kick so that she too, flew out, and as she was light she went much higher. Her husband cried, “Do come to me,” but she replied, “Come thou to me.” And they hovered about there in the air, and whether they are still hovering about, or not, I do not know, but the young Saint took his iron bar, and went on his way.