ar; for all his neighbours had wells, but he hadn't any, and that he
thought a shame. So the King said he would give both money and goods
to anyone who could dig him such a well as would hold water for a
whole year round, but no one could do it, for the palace lay high,
high up on a hill, and they could only dig a few inches before they
came upon the living rock.

But, as the King had set his heart on having these two things done, he
had it given out far and wide, in all the churches of his dominion,
that he who could fell the big oak in the King's courtyard, and get
him a well that would hold water the whole year round, should have the
Princess and half the kingdom.

Well! you may easily know there was many a man who came to try his
luck; but all their hacking and hewing, all their digging and delving,
were of no avail. The oak grew taller and stouter at every stroke, and
the rock grew no softer.

So one day the three brothers thought they'd set off and try, too, and
their father hadn't a word against it; for, even if they didn't get
the Princess and half the kingdom, it might happen that they would get
a place somewhere with a good master, and that was all he wanted. So
when the brothers said they thought of going to the palace, their
father said "Yes" at once, and Peter, Paul, and Youngling went off
from their home.

They had not gone far before they came to a fir-wood, and up along one
side of it rose a steep hillside, and as they went they heard
something hewing and hacking away up on the hill among the trees.

"I wonder now what it is that is hewing away up yonder?" said
Youngling.

"You are always so clever with your wonderings," said Peter and Paul,
both at once. "What wonder is it, pray, that a wood-cutter should
stand and hack up on a hillside?"

"Still, I'd like to see what it is, after all," said Youngling, and up
he went.

"Oh, if you're such a child, 't will do you good to go and take a
lesson," cried out his brothers after him.

But Youngling didn't care for what they said; he climbed the steep
hillside toward where the noise came, and when he reached the place,
what do you think he saw?

Why, an axe that stood there hacking and hewing, all of itself, at the
trunk of a fir.

"Good day," said Youngling. "So you stand here all alone and hew, do
you?"

"Yes, here I've stood and hewed and hacked a long, long time, waiting
for you, my lad," said the Axe.

"Well, here I am at last," said Youn