ere am I! Look what I have
found on the high road." And he showed them what it was, and it was
a dead crow.

"Dullard!" exclaimed the brothers, "what are you going to do
with that?"

"With the crow? why, I am going to give it to the Princess."

"Yes, do so," said they; and they laughed, and rode on.

"Hallo, here I am again! just see what I have found now: you don't
find that on the high road every day!"

And the brothers turned round to see what he could have found now.

"Dullard!" they cried, "that is only an old wooden shoe, and the
upper part is missing into the bargain; are you going to give that
also to the Princess?"

"Most certainly I shall," replied Jack the Dullard; and again
the brothers laughed and rode on, and thus they got far in advance
of him; but--

"Hallo--hop rara!" and there was Jack the Dullard again. "It is
getting better and better," he cried. "Hurrah! it is quite famous."

"Why, what have you found this time?" inquired the brothers.

"Oh," said Jack the Dullard, "I can hardly tell you. How glad
the Princess will be!"

"Bah!" said the brothers; "that is nothing but clay out of the
ditch."

"Yes, certainly it is," said Jack the Dullard; "and clay of the
finest sort. See, it is so wet, it runs through one's fingers." And he
filled his pocket with the clay.

But his brothers galloped on till the sparks flew, and
consequently they arrived a full hour earlier at the town gate than
could Jack. Now at the gate each suitor was provided with a number,
and all were placed in rows immediately on their arrival, six in
each row, and so closely packed together that they could not move
their arms; and that was a prudent arrangement, for they would
certainly have come to blows, had they been able, merely because one
of them stood before the other.

All the inhabitants of the country round about stood in great
crowds around the castle, almost under the very windows, to see the
Princess receive the suitors; and as each stepped into the hall, his
power of speech seemed to desert him, like the light of a candle
that is blown out. Then the Princess would say, "He is of no use! Away
with him out of the hall!"

At last the turn came for that brother who knew the dictionary
by heart; but he did not know it now; he had absolutely forgotten it
altogether; and the boards seemed to re-echo with his footsteps, and
the ceiling of the hall was made of looking-glass, so that he saw
himself standing on his h