before many hours had passed came a servant from the palace, and told hans that he must give her a hare instantly, for some visitors had come unexpectedly. hans, however, was very well aware what that meant, and said he would not give her one; the king might set some hare soup before his guest next day. the maid, however, would not believe in his refusal, and at last she began to get angry with him. then hans said that if the king’s daughter came herself, he would give her a hare. the maid told this in the palace, and the daughter did go herself. in the meantime, however, the little man came again to hans, and asked him what he was doing there? he said he had to watch over a hundred hares and see that none of them ran away, and then he might marry the king’s daughter and be king. "good," said the little man, "there is a whistle for thee, and if one of them runs away, just whistle with it, and then it will come back again." when the king’s daughter came, hans gave her a hare into her apron; but when she had gone about a hundred steps with it, he whistled, and the hare jumped out of the apron, and before she could turn round was back to the flock again. when the evening came the hare-herd whistled once more, and looked to see if all were there, and then drove them to the palace. the king wondered how hans had been able to take a hundred hares to graze without losing any of them; he would, however, not give him his daughter yet, and said he must now bring him a feather from the griffin’s tail. hans set out at once, and walked straight forwards. in the evening he came to a castle, and there he asked for a night’s lodging, for at that time there were no inns. the lord of the castle promised him that with much pleasure, and asked where he was going? hans answered, "to the griffin." "oh! to the griffin! they tell me he knows everything, and i have lost the key of an iron money-chest; so you might be so good as to ask him where it is." "yes, indeed," said hans, "i will do that." early the next morning he went onwards, and on his way arrived at another castle in which he again stayed the night. when the people who lived there learnt that he was going to the griffin, they said they had in the house a daughter who was ill, and that they had already tried every means to cure her, but none of them had done her any good, and he might be so kind as to ask the griffin what would make their daughter healthy again? hans said he would willingly do that, and went onwards. then he came to a lake, and instead of a ferry-boat, a tall, tall man was there who had to carry everybody across. the man asked hans whither he was journeying?