Ep. 1130 - The Blue Fairy Book - The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was, Pt. 4

The second night he went up again to the old castle, sat down at the fire, and began his old refrain: ‘If I could only shudder!’ As midnight approached, a noise and din broke out, at first gentle, but gradually increasing; then all was quiet for a minute, and at length, with a loud scream, half of a man dropped down the chimney and fell before him. ‘Hi, up there!’ shouted he; ‘there’s another half wanted down here, that’s not enough;’ then the din commenced once more, there was a shrieking and a yelling, and then the other half fell down. ‘Wait a bit, he said; ‘I’ll stir up the fire for you.’ When he had done this and again looked round, the two pieces had united, and a horrible-looking man sat on his seat. ‘Come,’ said the youth, ‘I didn’t bargain for that, the seat is mine.’ The man tried to shove him away, but the youth wouldn’t allow it for a moment, and, pushing him off by force, sat down in his place again. Then more men dropped down, one after the other, who, fetching nine skeleton legs and two skulls, put them up and played ninepins with them. The youth thought he would like to play too, and said: ‘Look here; do you mind my joining the game?’ ‘No, not if you have money.’ ‘I’ve money enough,’ he replied, ‘but your balls aren’t very round.’