In a certain town there was a rich merchant. He had a large and beautiful garden behind his house, and a portion of it was sown with millet. One day early in spring, when the corn was beginning to look green and flourishing, he walked in his garden and saw to his great vexation that during the past night a portion of his young millet had been destroyed. Some wicked fellow must have been about, he thought.
Because he had always sown millet in this particular spot, he had a great affection for it. So he decided to catch the rascal and either to punish him on the spot or deliver him up to justice.
He called together his three sons, Michael, George and John, he said to them, "Last night a thief was in our garden and tore up some of my millet. The thief has to be caught and punished. You, sons, must watch in turns, night by night. Whoever catches the thief I will reward well."
The first night the eldest son, Michael, watched. He was armed with a brace of pistols and a sharp sabre. But he also brought with him good meat and drink, so when he lay wrapped in a warm cloak under a juniper-bush to enjoy himself on is watch, he fell sound asleep.
When he woke up it was broad daylight. A still larger piece of the millet was gone than on the former night. When the merchant came into the garden and saw this, he knew that his son had fallen asleep instead of watching for the thief, and said he wondered that the thief had not stolen him, sword, pistols and all.
The next night the second son, George, watched. He was armed with the same weapons as his brother had, and in addition a thick club and a strong rope. George, however, fell asleep as his brother had done. The next morning he found that the thief had done still more ravages on the millet. The father said sadly that if the third watcher should sleep too, there would be no more need for looking after the millet: it would be all gone.
Now it was John's turn. He would take no arms with him, but he brought with him a rope and also some thorns and thistles to keep himself awake with. When he went into the garden at night he placed these thorns in such a way in front of him that whenever he began to nod, they tickled his nose and made him open his eyes again.
When midnight came, he heard a tramping that came nearer and nearer. As soon as it had reached the millet, something began to pull at it.
"Look!" he thought to himself, "Here is the thief!" Softly pushing aside the thorns, he drew a rope from his pocket and made a lasso, and then made towards the place the noise came from, and found that the millet thief was a pretty little pony. The sight of the animal made John glad. With hardly any trouble he caught it. The animal followed him like a dog to the stable. There John locked him up for the night. That done, he went quietly to bed.
When his brothers got up in the morning, they had in mind go into the garden to see how their brother had fared, until they saw he was lying snugly in bed. They woke him up, laughing, for they thought he had been asleep in his bed all night long instead of watching.
John explained to them, "I will soon show you the thief." And then leading his father and brothers down to the stable, he showed them the wonderful little pony. Nobody knew anything about it, where it came from and who it belonged to. It was a dear little thing of an elegant form and quite silver-white. The merchant was very much pleased with it and gave the pony to John as his reward, and was so charmed with the animal that he called it "Millet-thief."
Soon after the brothers heard that a beautiful princess was enchanted in the castle that stood on the high glass hill that nobody could climb because it was so smooth and steep, people told. But it was also rumoured that whoever was fortunate enough to get up to the castle and ride three times around it, would rescue the princess and get her as his bride. Many had already tried and lost their lives by slipping back.
The three brothers took it into their head to try their luck in riding up to the castle and win the beautiful princess. Michael and George bought themselves strong young horses and caused their hoofs to be roughshod, while John just saddled his pony.
Then all three rode to the glass mountain to try their luck. The eldest tried first, but his horse stumbled as soon as it reached the hill. Down it fell and rolled with its rider to the bottom of the road.
The second brother shared the same fate; and so neither of them would make try again.
Then it was John's turn. He rode up on Millet-thief without a single stumble, and trot, trot, trot he rode three times round the castle too.
As Millet-thief and he stopped in front of the castle-door, it flew open. There was the princess, dressed in silk and gold and with her arms stretched out, ready to welcome John. He quickly got off from his horse and took the princess in his arms, and embraced her.
After a while the princess turned to the little pony that had carried John up the mountain. Hugging its head, she said to it, "Why did you run away from me so that I could no more enjoy the one gladdening hour which was granted me here, to ride down and up this high glass hill? Oh, never leave me again."
As she said this, John realised that his Millet-thief was the enchanted pony of the beautiful princess.
His brothers tried again after their fall to get up the mountain, but John saw them no more, for he lived happily, free from many worldly cares, with his freed princess in the castle on the top of the glass hill.
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