` Say at once , `` To my good health ! '' ' cried the king . ` To my good health ! ' replied the shepherd . ` To mine -- to mine , you rascal , you vagabond ! ' stormed the king . ` To mine , to mine , your Majesty , ' was the answer . ` But to mine -- to my own , ' roared the king , and beat on his breast in a rage . ` Well , yes ; to mine , of course , to my own , ' cried the shepherd , and gently tapped his breast . The king was beside himself with fury and did not know what to do , when the Lord Chamberlain interfered : ` Say at once -- say this very moment : `` To your health , your Majesty '' ; for if you do n't say it you 'll lose your life , whispered he . ` No , I wo n't say it till I get the princess for my wife , ' was the shepherd 's answer . Now the princess was sitting on a little throne beside the king , her father , and she looked as sweet and lovely as a little golden dove . When she heard what the shepherd said she could not help laughing , for there is no denying the fact that this young shepherd with the staring eyes pleased her very much ; indeed he pleased her better than any king 's son she had yet seen . But the king was not as pleasant as his daughter , and he gave orders to throw the shepherd into the white bear 's pit . The guards led him away and thrust him into the pit with the white bear , who had had nothing to eat for two days and was very hungry . The door of the pit was hardly closed when the bear rushed at the shepherd ; but when it saw his eyes it was so frightened that it was ready to eat itself . It shrank away into a corner and gazed at him from there , and , in spite of being so famished , did not dare to touch him , but sucked its own paws from sheer hunger . The shepherd felt that if he once removed his eyes off the beast he was a dead man , and in order to keep himself awake he made songs and sang them , and so the night went by . Next morning the Lord Chamberlain came to see the shepherd 's bones , and was amazed to find him alive and well . He led him to the king , who fell into a furious passion , and said : ` Well , you have learned what it is to be very near death , and now will you say `` To my good health '' ? '
But the shepherd answered : ' I am not afraid XXXXX ten deaths !
as at for from in of than till to with