Predict
What will happen to the youngest son?
That night there was a full moon. The dragon ravaged the countryside so terribly that several families moved to another kingdom.
“Well,” sighed the king in the morning,” still no luck in this dragon business, I see.”
“I’m just as glad, myself,” said the princess, moving her mother, pot and all, to the window where the sun could get at her. “The cobbler’s middle son was a kind of humpback.”
Now the cobbler’s youngest son saw that his turn had come. He was very upset and nervous, and he wished he had never been born. He was not clever, like his eldest brother. He was not strong, like his second-eldest brother. He was a decent, honest boy who always minded his elders.
He borrowed a suit of armor from a friend of his who was a knight. When the youngest son put the armor on it was so heavy he could hardly walk. From another knight he borrowed a sword. It was so heavy that the only way the youngest son could get it to the dragon’s lair was to drag it along behind his horse like a plow.
When everything was in readiness, the youngest son went for a last conversation with his father.
“Father, have you any advice to give me?” he asked.
“Only this,” said the cobbler. “When and if you come to the dragon’s lair, recite the following poem.
Say it very loudly and firmly, and the dragon will fall, God willing, at your feet.”
“Are you certain?” asked the youngest son uneasily.
“As certain as one can ever be in these