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"Oh, if only I could shudder!" he said. "But I won't learn it here either."
Towards midnight he decided to stir up his fire. He was just blowing into it when a cry suddenly came from one of the corners, "Au, meow! How cold we are!"
"You fools," he shouted, "what are you crying about? If you are cold, come and sit down by the fire and warm yourselves."
When he had said that, two large black cats came with a powerful leap and sat down on either side of him, looking at him savagely with their fiery eyes.
A little while later, after warming themselves, they said, "Comrade, shall we play a game of cards?"
"Why not?" he replied, "But first show me your paws."
So they stretched out their claws.
"Oh," he said, "what long nails you have. Wait. First I will have to trim them for you."
With that he seized them by their necks, put them on the woodcarver's bench, and tightened them into the vice by their feet. "I have been looking at your fingers," he said, "and my desire to play cards has disappeared," and he struck them dead and threw them out into the water.
After he had put these two to rest, he was about to sit down again by his fire, when from every side and every corner there came black cats and black dogs on red-hot chains. More and more of them appeared until he could no longer move. They shouted horribly, then jumped into his fire and pulled it apart, trying to put it out.
He quietly watched them for a little while, but finally it was too much for him, and he seized his carving-knife, and cried, "Away with you, you villains!" and hacked away at them. Some of them ran away, the others he killed, and threw out into the pond. When he came back he blew into the embers of his fire until they flamed up again, and warmed himself.
As he thus sat there, his eyes would no longer stay open, and he wanted to fall asleep. Looking around, he saw a large bed in the corner. "That is just what I wanted," he said, and lay down in it. However, as he was about to shut his eyes, the bed began to move by itself, going throughout the whole castle.
"Good," he said, "but let's go faster."
then the bed rolled on as if six horses were harnessed to it, over thresholds and stairways, up and down. But then suddenly, hop, hop, it tipped upside down and lay on him like a mountain. But he threw the covers and pillows into the air, climbed out, and said, "Now anyone who wants to may drive." Then he lay down by his fire, and slept until it was day.
In the morning the king came, and when he saw him lying there on the ground, he thought that the ghosts had killed him and that he was dead. Then said he, "It is indeed a pity to lose such a handsome person."
the boy heard this, got up, and said, "It hasn't come to that yet."
the king was astonished, but glad, and asked how he had fared.
"Very well," he replied. "One night is past. the two others will pass as well."
When he returned to the innkeeper, the latter looked astonished and said, "I did not think that I'd see you alive again. Did you learn how to shudder?"
"No," he said, "it is all in vain. If someone could only tell me how."
the second night he again went up to the old castle, sat down by the fire, and began his old song once more, "If only I could shudder!"
As midnight was approaching he heard a noise and commotion. At first it was soft, but then louder and louder. Then it was a little quiet, and finally, with a loud scream, half of a man came down the chimney and fell in front of him.
"Hey!" he shouted. "Another half belongs here. This is too little."
then the noise began again. With roaring and howling the other half fell down as well.
"Wait," he said. "Let me blow on the fire and make it burn a little warmer for you."
When he had done that and looked around again. the two pieces had come together, and a hideous man was sitting in his place.
"That wasn't part of the wager," said the boy. "That bench is mine."
the man wanted to force him aside, but the boy would not let him, instead pushing him away with force, and then sitting down again in his own place.
then still more men fell down, one after the other. They brought nine bones from dead men and two skulls, then set them up and bowled with them.
