Free Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino Page A

for the prince, who was new in town and hadn’t yet visited the court.
    â€œCongratulations,” the king said. “Your palace is a true wonder. My house looks like a hut compared with it. Congratulations! But was it your idea to put up the words: Money can do everything?”
    The prince realized that maybe he had gone too far.
    â€œYes it was,” he answered, “but if Your Majesty doesn’t like it, I can easily have the letters stripped off.”
    â€œOh, no, I wouldn’t think of having you do that. I merely wanted to hear from your own lips what you meant by such a statement. For instance, do you think that, with your money, you could have me assassinated?”
    The prince realized he had got himself into a tight spot.
    â€œOh, Majesty, forgive me. I’ll have the words removed at once. And if you don’t like the palace, just say so, and I’ll have it torn down too.”
    â€œNo, no, leave it the way it is. But since you claim a person with money can do anything, prove it to me. I’ll give you three days to try to talk to my daughter. If you manage to speak to her, well and good; you will marry her. If not, I’ll have you beheaded. Is that clear?”
    The prince was too distressed to eat, drink, or sleep. Day and night, all he thought of was how he might save his neck. By the second day he was certain of failure and decided to make his will. His plight was hopeless, for the king’s daughter had been closed up in a castle surrounded by one hundred guards. Pale and limp as a rag, the prince lay on his bed waiting to die, when in walked his old nurse, a decrepit old soul now who had nursed him as a baby and who still worked for him. Finding him so haggard, the old woman asked what was wrong. Hemming and hawing, he told her the whole story.
    â€œSo?” said the nurse. “And you’re giving up, like that? You make me laugh! I’ll see what I can do about all this!”
    Off she wobbled to the finest silversmith in town and ordered him to make a solid silver goose that would open and close its bill. The goose was to be as big as a man and hollow inside. “It must be ready tomorrow,” she added.
    â€œTomorrow? You’re crazy!” exclaimed the silversmith.
    â€œTomorrow I said!” The old woman pulled out a purse of gold coins and continued, “Think it over. This is the down payment. I’ll give you the rest tomorrow when you deliver the goose.”
    The silversmith was dumbfounded. “That makes all the difference in the world,” he said. “I’ll do my best to have the goose tomorrow.”
    The next day the goose was ready, and it was a beauty.
    The old woman said to the prince, “Take your violin and get inside the goose. Play as soon as we reach the road.”
    They wound their way through the city, with the old woman pulling the silver goose along by a ribbon and the prince inside playing his violin. The people lined the streets to watch: there wasn’t a soul in town that didn’t come running to see the beautiful goose. Word of it reached the castle where the king’s daughter was shut up, and she asked her father to let her go and see the unusual sight.
    The king said, “Time’s up for that boastful prince tomorrow. You can go out then and see the goose.”
    But the girl had heard that the old woman with the goose would be gone by tomorrow. Therefore the king had the goose brought inside the castle so his daughter could see it. That’s just what the old woman was counting on. As soon as the princess was alone with the silver goose and delighting in the music pouring from its bill, the goose suddenly opened and out stepped a man.
    â€œDon’t be afraid,” said the man. “I am the prince who must either speak to you or be decapitated by your father tomorrow morning. You can say you spoke to me and save my life.”
    The next day the king sent for the prince.