Once upon a time there was a king. This king had only one son, but God knows why, and he was so angry with him that he chased him away from the house: up the road and down the road!
In vain did the queen take his side, in vain did she weep over the whole village for her sweet fetus torn from her heart: there was no pardon and no grace: the little king's son had to go into hiding.
So the prince set out with great sadness; he went, he went, he went through the hills and valleys. As he went, he heard someone running after him, shouting his name. He turns back, and there is a footman from the court.
He was mad that he might call her back, but the butler said sadly that he should not think of it, but here was a gold watch, no, his mother had sent it, put it away. The prince took the watch, put it in his pocket, and went on his way in great sorrow.
On his way he misses the clock, opens the lid, and, my lord! Some invisible spirit or other speaks, and says:
- What can I do for you, my soul, my sweet master?
The prince pondered this, but in his great, great reverie he said not a word, but put the watch back in his pocket. At once the road forked in two directions, one leading to a vast forest, the other to a city. He wondered which way to go.
It would have been nice to go to town and thank him there, but he didn't have a penny to spare. So he went to the woods, thinking that there he could at least make a fire, perhaps even catch a bird, and then pick strawberries and mushrooms, and have a meal that the king would not have liked.
So he went into the forest and settled down under a big tree. He took out his watch to see what time it was. Well, the invisible spirit or something spoke again, and asked him:
- What can I do for you, my soul, my sweet master?
The prince replied:
- If you really want me to give you orders, then get me something to eat from the ground.
Before the prince had even looked away, there was a table set with all sorts of expensive good food. The little prince touched it humanely, and lay down on the soft grass, and did not rise until the sun was shining on his belly.
On he went, and went, and went, until he came to a mountain so great that neither the end, nor the length, nor the top of it could be seen. He looked to the right, he looked to the left, he looked upwards, he went round and round the mountain, but he could not find a way to get over it, it was so high and so steep.
But he searched until he found a goose. He set off on this lick, but he barely got within a good rifle shot of it, and was plunged into such darkness that he could move neither forwards nor backwards. He reached into his pocket to get a match, and as he was looking for the match, the watch came into his hand, and he reached for it.
- What can I do for you, my soul, my sweet master? - said the clock.
- 'I command you,' said the prince, 'to give me light.
As soon as he said the commandment, he had a lighted candle in his hand, and he walked on by its light. In and in he went, and suddenly the lich began to widen. There he found a house.
He goes into the house and finds an old dwarf man. He greets him with decorum.
- Good day to you, my dear father, how is your dear health?
- God grant it!" said the dwarf. - I am well, but who are you, and what kind of a man are you, that you walk here where not even a mouse walks?
The prince told with great bitterness of his sad fate, that the heart of the dwarf man had fallen upon him. He assured him, comforted him, that he should not grieve, for then he would find him just such a place as he had left.
Then he told me that there was a king over the hill, and he had only one son, but he too was lost in the war. If he would go now to the king who was about to be killed by sorrow, and say that he was the lost son, the king would grieve no more, and he would not be the world's wanderer.
But so and so, said the prince, it would not be honour. But the dwarf spoke in this way or that way: he was inclined to the word, and the dwarf chewed his tongue, what he should say to the king:
- Tell him that your name is Paul, that you left home seven years ago, and that you have not written a letter because you were taken prisoner, but so badly that you could neither write a letter nor send a word. Ask even if the three of your sisters, whom you left alive when you left, are still alive.
The prince thanked the dwarf for his good advice, said goodbye to him, and started out of the mountain. When he came out, he took his watch, and commanded the spirit:
- Take me over this mountain to the king who had only one son, and he too was lost in the army.
- 'All right, my soul, my good master,' said the clock, 'just close your eyes.
The prince closed his eyes and felt his feet not touching the ground, flying like a thought. But it was not long before his feet touched the ground again, and then the clock said:
- Open your eyes now!
The prince opened it and looked around. He stood at the gate of a palace even more beautiful than his father's.
When he had had a good look round the palace, he entered the gate and went straight to the king. He did not confuse himself much, but fell straight into the King's neck, embraced him, kissed him, and said, "My dear, sweet, good father, and my lord, my lord, I have not seen you for seven years, and I thought I should never see you again.
The king stared, stared, stared at the boy from head to toe, to the face, to the back, in any case, but he just didn't know his own sweet son. But he answered all questions so well that the king suspected no more, and in his great joy he made such a racket that even the priest ate the pulisk with wine, not brandy, and even the lame men danced.
All three of the princesses were alive, and the prince thought it would be nice to give his "brothers" a nice present. He took his watch, and commanded the spirit to bring the three maidens three bunches of golden blossoms such as no human eye had ever seen.
In less than an hour, there were all three golden blossom bushes. He sent them to the three little ladies' rooms separately, without any of them knowing about the others. Well, time goes by. One night there was a great ball in the royal palace, and the youngest princess pinned that beautiful golden bush on her breast. Well, it was so bright all at once, you might as well have put out the candle.
The older princesses did not bring theirs, and both thought their brother had stolen theirs. They attacked him to give back their flowers.
- "But I will not give it to you," said the little princess; "if you have one, bring it to me; it is certainly where you put it.
Then both girls run away, and they return with a golden bush each. But even then there was a brightness that the sun could not shine brighter.
The whole country was talking about it, everyone was talking about the wonderful golden bushes. The king could not praise his son enough for thinking of his brothers even when he was a prisoner, and for being so frugal that he was able to buy three golden bushels. But the butler shook his head, and said to the king:
- Now, my lord king, do not be offended, but there is something wicked in this, and I will wager that if your majesty will command him to build a golden bridge from his palace to mine by to-morrow morning, the prince will do it.
The king challenged his master, but he persisted until he promised for the last time that he would test his son.
He took the boy at once, and told him what he wished. He was an old man, but he loved beauty, and he thought that he, being a man of the world, might know how to build a golden bridge.
The prince told her to wait until the morning, he could say nothing until then. Then, when they parted, the prince took his watch, and told the king what he wished.
- 'Never mind, my soul, my dear master,' said the clock, 'the bridge will be ready in the morning.
And it was. But it was so beautiful, so bright, that when the king got up and looked out of the window, he fell down in amazement.
He called his son and said to him:
- Well done, son. But if you can do that, you can do better. If by tomorrow morning you haven't built seven contemptible palaces of solid gold, and that palace isn't standing on a thin diamond foot, I'll have your head!
The king indeed thought that his son could not do this, and was glad that he could have him killed, for he feared that his madness would send him to hell. The prince himself did not believe that the trickster had so much spirit as to build such a palace, but he told him what the king wanted.
Then he went to bed, and in the morning - he woke up. Did not the seven contemplation palaces stand outside his window?! Only he was not killed by wonder. And the king! He had to be washed with cold water, he fainted with wonder.
But the king still hadn't had enough of the miracle. By the next day he needed a courtyard fit for a palace of gold. When he had it, he wanted a garden in which even the smallest blade of grass would be gold and diamonds. For this he gave three days.
- "All right," thought the prince, "I'll do this one, but if it's not enough, I'll untie the wheel.
Because he has only stayed here for the sake of the little princess. But when it came to the garden, the foreman suggested that they should go hunting, and take the prince with them, for he remembered that he had loved hunting before the war. They decided at once to go hunting.
But before they started, the master-hopper said to the prince that it would be well if he left his fine watch at home, for it might easily break in the forest, and there was no master here, as there was in the country, to repair it. The Prince took the advice, and left the clock in his room.
But no sooner had they reached the forest, than the foreman, who had seen the prince one night discussing his watch, crept home, climbed through the window into the prince's room, took the watch, and opened it. He asked now of the clock:
- What can I do for you, thief, my thieving master?
- I command you to take me to a place where even the wind rarely blows, and where nothing but mice can reach.
In the twinkling of an eye, there was the master-hopper with the prince's watch, where he wished to be. He comes home from hunting in the evening, goes straight to his room, and first of all looks for his watch. He looks, but cannot find it. He turns everything upside down, he puts a pin in everything, but to no avail, there was no news of the magic clock.
Hey, the prince is getting sad! What is he to do now without a watch! His life's over if he doesn't suddenly move. Before any one could have seen him, he had fled from the palace, and gone where his eyes could see.
For seven days and seven nights he went on and on, asking questions everywhere, but he could find no trace of this precious treasure. On the eighth day, just at sunset, he came to a little cottage. He went in. The sun himself was living there, and he was just about to go to bed. He bids you good evening, and asks your leave to disturb him so late.
- What are you doing here, son? - asks the Sun.
He says he's looking for such-and-such a foreman.
- 'Oh, my dear boy,' said the Sun, 'I only go from east to west, but the one you seek does not go there, for then I would certainly have seen him. But here, not far off, dwells the King of the Winds, his sons travel the world, and he surely knows of your Hopmaster.
The prince thanked the sun for his good advice, wished the sun a peaceful good night, and went to the king of the winds. But this only said that neither he nor his sons had seen any hop-master, and he must have hidden himself in a place where the wind seldom ventures. Perhaps the king of mice could guide him.
He went to the king of mice. The king of the mice immediately ordered all the mice together, and asked if they had seen such and such a hopmaster.
- If I saw it, I'll tear my eyes out! - said all.
The prince was about to go back to his room, when a mouse limped away. The king of the mice asks him if he has seen a hoarder.
- "But I have seen it," said the lame mouse, "I have just come from there, but it lives in a cave under the ground, and in a cave so narrow that even I can hardly get in.
The prince was mad, and asked the mouse to lead him to the cave, and they would find something there. They got to the cave, and there they began to wonder what to do. It was decided that the mouse would hide in the cave, and while the hop-master slept, he would chew the watch-chain and bring the watch to the prince.
In half an hour the mouse came, and brought the clock, and the prince brought so much grain with the clock that the mouse could live on it for the rest of his life. They left the hoarder in the cave, where he neither lived nor died. He was just fine there.
Now the prince has gone back to the court of his second father, and he is being buried at that very moment! He left the kingdom to his youngest daughter, because she was the cleverest. Before the king was even practically buried, the two eldest daughters married two princes, and he proposed to the youngest.
In the meantime, it must be said, he confessed that he was not the brother of the princesses, and only on the advice of the dwarf, in order to console the king, pretended to be the king's son. But it did not take long to ask the princess. Soon they bought boards, benches and tables, and at one time they had three feasts that are perhaps still going on.
(Elek Benedek: Hungarian tale- and mythology Volume 1)
