SO David the hero waited and waited.
He used to help his father and his mother, and when he was not doing that he was playing with some of the little, little babies of the village. The little babies understood him, though nobody else did. Everybody else laughed at him; even his little sister, whom he used to nurse when she was a baby and who had now grown up into a tall, thin girl of twelve or thirteen--even she laughed at him as did the others in the village, and called him moon-calf. She had forgotten how he had carried her in his arms down to the rocks, and how there both of them had seen the Moon-Angel.
The truth is that the Moon-Angel comes with a sponge at some time to each of us and wipes our memories clean of everything that happens to us from the time we begin to live to the time we are three years old. That is why David's little sister did not remember how they had seen the MoonAngel together, and that was why she laughed at him now as the others did and called him moon-calf.
But the little babies all understood David, and so he used to play with them.
All that land was in a great hubbub of rejoicing.
The Princess Aurelia, the most beautiful in all the world, had suddenly come back into her senses again, and now she was as wise as anybody else.
That was cause enough of rejoicing, but it was as nothing when it was known that the Wonder-Box and the Know-All Book had been brought back to earth again.
Yes; they had been brought back again, but the box was locked, and there was no key, and no one could open it. All the world knew, however, that the key was to be found, for the Princess told how David had hung it about his neck, and so there was joy and rejoicing.
But who was the hero who had brought the lost treasure back to the earth again? No one could tell, not even the Princess. "They called him David," said she, "but I do not even know if that was his real name."
"And do you know," said the King, "what has been promised to the hero who shall bring back the Wonder-Box and the Know-All Book?" And then, when the Princess did not reply, he said, "It is that he shall marry you."
The Princess still looked down and raised her pretty eyebrows and blushed, twining her smooth white fingers in and out. "When we were children together in the moon-garden, he told me that it was to be so," said she.
"And are you willing?" said the King. "Are you willing that it should be so?"
"Yes," whispered the Princess Aurelia.
So the King sent out his messengers through all the land to find the hero who had the golden key of the Wonder-Box hung about his neck. For he was to marry the Princess.
Meantime over yonder in the village David waited and waited, for he knew that every beginning must have its ending some time or other.
The King's messengers, each with six knights and a herald, went everywhere--east and west, north and south--to all of the great cities and towns in the kingdom, but nowhere could the hero be found--the man with the golden key hung about his neck.
Then they went to the villages, one after the other; and so, by and by, one of the messengers came to the village where David and his father and mother lived.
It was a grand sight--the King's messenger, the six knights in armor, and the herald with his silver horn with a golden banner hanging from it. The herald sounded his horn as they all marched to the common where the geese fed and the little children played, and there he proclaimed in a loud voice that the King had. sent his messenger to find the man who had a golden key hung by a golden chain about his neck.
Everybody crowded about to listen to him, and to gape at him--men, women, and children.
"Have you got it?--Have you got it?--Have you got it?" said the men to one another.
"No; I have not got it,"--" Nor I "--"nor I." Nobody had it.
Is there any other man living in the village asked the King's messenger. Then the people began to laugh. "There is a man named Hans Krout," said one man, "he is a crazy cobbler."
"Bring him hither," said the king's messenger.
Off ran a dozen of them, and presently they returned, bringing Hans Krout with them.
"Have you a golden key hung from your neck by a golden chain?" asked the King's messenger.
"No," said Hans Krout, "such a key as that is all moonshine, and, you see, I was never able to bring any back with me."
"Any what? " said the King's messenger.
"Any moonshine," said Hans Krout.
"Ha-ha-ha!" laughed everybody, and even the King's messenger smiled. They did not know that Hans Krout was the only wise man among them--they all thought he was crazy.
"Is there no other man in the village?" said the King's messenger.
"Why, yes," said one of them that stood near--it was Tom Stout.--"Why, yes, there is one, but he is only a poor, childish creature of a moon-calf. His name is David, and his father and mother are ashamed of him, because he is so simple."
"Nevertheless, bring him hither," said the King's messenger.
The people looked at one another, and laughed.
"Bring him hither," said the King's messenger again, and then a dozen of them ran away to fetch David.
As soon as they had come into the house, David knew that his waiting had hatched its eggs.
"There 's somebody out here who wants to see you," said the people who had come to fetch him.
But David only sat still and smiled. "I cannot go to him," said he.
"But it is the King's messenger," said they.
"I will not go even to the King's messenger," said David. "If he wants me, he must come to me."
They talked and talked to David, but all to no purpose. He would not go, and at last they had to go back to the King's messenger again. "Simpleton has grown proud," said they; "he says that he won't come to you and that you must come to him."
"Very well," said the King's messenger, "then I will go to him."
So off he went across the common, and down the street to David's house, a great crowd of people following behind him. There was David sitting, waiting, and when the King's messenger and the six knights and the herald crowded into the place, they filled the house. Yes; a noble sight they were, with silver and gold and bright jewels that gleamed and glistened and seemed to fill the place with light.
The people who had followed the messenger stood outside and peeped in through the windows, and David's father and mother stood in the corner and stared, with their eyes as round as the eyes of fishes. But David sat still, and looked at the King's messenger and the knights and the herald, and smiled.
"Have you got a golden key hung about your neck, with a golden chain?" said the King's messenger.
"Yes; I have," said David.
"Let me see it!" said the King's messenger.
David thrust his hand into his bosom, and there was the key hung to the golden chain.
"That is it," said the King's messenger. "Blow your horn, herald!" And the herald blew his horn so loud and shrill that the rafters cracked and rang.
As for the people peeping in at the windows, they could not believe their eyes when they saw that David--David the simpleton--David the moon-calf--really had the golden key, and was the hero of heroes of whom all the world was talking.
The King's messenger took off his hat with its fine feathers, and bowed so low that his head almost touched the floor. And David smiled and put the key back into his bosom again.
"You must come with us now to the King's city," said the King's messenger.
"Yes," said David, "that is what I have been waiting for."
Then they brought up a great white horse with a saddle and bridle sparkling with gold and jewels. The King's messenger himself held the stirrup, while David mounted into the saddle, and the people stood huddled around staring with wonder. David looked around at them and laughed. Poor Tom Stout's eyes were staring like those of a calf, and he looked very droll in his wonder.
Then they rode away and down the street, the horses' hoofs clattering and ringing upon the cobble stones.
"Huzza! huzza! " cried everybody; "Huzza for David the hero!" and they waved their caps above their heads, and some of them threw them in the air. Only the geese upon the common stooped their necks and hissed after the horses' heels. "Huzza! huzza! huzza!" and all the girls waved their handkerchiefs.
So David rode away to the King's palace, and everybody felt proud that such a great hero had been born in that village.
That is the way it happens sometimes.