White Deer by James Thurber

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THE WHITE DEER

other books

by

JAMES THURBER

—AND WELCOME TO

MY WORLD MEN,

WOMEN AND

DOGS

for children

MANY MOONS THE GREAT QUILLOW

IT

JAMES THURBER

THE WHITE DEER ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR

AND DON FREEMAN

HARCOURT, BRACE & WORLD,

INC.

•

NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT, 1945, BY

JAMES THURBER

All

rights

reserved,

including

the right to reproduce this book

or portions thereof in any form.

F.2.63

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

To Joe and Gertrude and

Nora

THE WHITE DEER

The Magical The Lost

Forest

3

22

Princess

The

Perilous Labor of Prince

The

Perilous Labor of Prince Gallow

63

The

Perilous Labor of Prince Jorn

75

The Dark Enchantment Epilogue

Thag

50

89

'7/5

THE WHITE DEER

THE MAGICAL FOREST

you should walk and wind and wander

If

of those afternoons in April of up, near,

when smoke

and nearby things sound

you

likely to

far

far

enough on one

goes

down

away and

come

y^^^f^ ^Oy^T.^

at last to

I

between the Moon-

stone

i

Mountain. You'll know

still

a long

when you way

off

by

\

r\

Mines and Centaurs

the woods

far things

more than

are

the enchanted forest that lies

instead

are vir-

tue of a fragrance you can never quite forget and never quite remember.

And

there'll

boys to run and laugh and

be a distant

girls to

bell that causes

stand and tremble.

If

you

pluck one of the ten thousand toadstools that grow in the

emerald grass at the edge of the wonderful woods, feel as

go

it

heavy

as a

will sail

hammer

in

away over the 3

your hand, but

if

you

it

will

let it

trees like a tiny parachute,

The White Deer trailing black

and purple

There's even a

stars.

tale, first told

by minstrels

in the

time, that rabbits here can tip their heads as their hats,

them back

removing them with

medieval

men now

their

paws and putting

was once upon

a time a part of the

again.

This enchanted

forest

kingdom of a mighty monarch named Clode, who had sons,

Thag, Gallow and

father,

tip

King Clode, were

Jorn.

Thag and

three

Gallow, like their

great hunters, and

when they were

not eating or sleeping they were engaged in the chase. Jorn, the youngest and shortest of the Princes feet tall

—was

a poet and musician, and

at table or in bed,

music of the

when

lyre.

his father

—he was only

when he was not

he was fond of setting his verses

He

occasionally took part in the

and brothers

insisted,

six

to the

hunt

but he was careful to

The Magical Forest loose

and

his

arrows

cast his lances

clear of

whatever

quarry the royal family might be pursuing.

Three times

in

Vn

•

»

the middle of the

century in which they lived, the King and his two older sons had depleted their

kingdom

of wild

times they had been forced to wait around the lessly

sharpening their lances, until a

come

new

slept longer

and they

fell to

ate oftener,

buffeting and plaguing the

castle

and

forests.

drank more,

during these tedious periods of inactivity,

retinue, particularly a

Wizard, a

generation of deer and

to maturity in the fields

King Clode and Thag and Gallow and

castle, rest-

feathering their arrows and

stringing their bows,

wild boar could

and three

life,

members

of their

dwarf named Quondo, and the Royal

wizard whose magic consisted chiefly of

sleight-of-hand and juggling, since he was not privy to

the secrets of the woods wizards

who

lived in the

enchanted

forest.

Jorn found these seasons serene, and spent his time sing-

ing of a faraway Princess

who would one day

labor for each of the Princes to perform.

He

set a perilous

sang that

love,

not might, would untie the magic knot, or open the mystic

5

The White Deer lock, or

hoodwink the dreadful dragon or

resolve

whatever

other problem the faraway Princess might propose as the

key

and hand. Thag and Gallow guffawed at

to her heart

their

younger brother's "finickery"

they called

as

it,

and

they would take to tossing Quondo, the dwarf, back and forth in the air as protests.

The

he were a

older brothers

Jorn for he had wrestling,

if

ball, oblivious of his

knew

better than to

more than once taken

and he could hold

his

own

falls

guttural

put upon

from them in

at tilting

on horse-

back.

One

night

and the deer to run,

when

the third period of waiting for the boar

to venture abroad

King Clode

had

still

a

hundred moons

told a tale to his sons, over his tankards,

while Jorn strummed softly on his lyre and

Quondo

sat in

a dark corner of the banquet hall, under a great shield, nurs-

ing his scars and bruises.

'There

always the enchanted forest to hunt/' Prince

is

Thag had growled

at supper time, testing the string of a

long bow.

"There

is

always the enchanted forest to shun," King

Clode had roared, and he went on once dared to chase a

own

father

fleet

to tell of

how he had

deer in the magic woods with his

and two brothers, and

how

they had brought

the deer to bay against the sheer wall of Centaurs tain,

and

how

as

they

made ready

to

the deer had been transformed into a

6

Moun-

launch their arrows,

tall,

dark young prin-

The Magical Forest who had been changed

cess,

wicked old

woman

by

into a deer years before

jealous of the

young

girl's

a

beauty.

'There we were," went on King Clode, 'your grandfather,

King Bode, and

his three sons

—

your Uncle Garf and myself

—your Uncle Cloon,

feeling like sheep in our cha-

grin and dismay, or like a mastiff that goes growling boldly into a wolf's

One

den and comes upon a pink-eyed female

of those grinning

and conjured up thin

air, as I

"We

a

woods wizards came along presently

white palfrey for the Princess

remember

rabbit.

—and we rode

it

—out

of

off to the castle.

gave the Princess food and wine and a pillow for

her head, and on the following day

we

set off in full

pano-

ply and jingling trappings to carry her to her father,

a

king whose lands lay

far to the north.

We

jin-

gled through apple blos-

soms, as

we

started out,

was May, and we jingled through snowflakes when

for

it

we

neared her ancestral

Her

castle.

and mother were

father

overjoyed to see their daughter again and her father the

King

set a series of passable tables in

although to

my

taste the

of buckle polish, or lance

wines of the North smack a bit oil,

years ago."

"Why

honor of the occasion,

have you never told

it

—

7

may

" said

—

be

this

Thag.

was many

The White Deer "

—

this tale before?" said

"You were

too

young,"

might offend the growing "This was

many

"Ah, yes,"

said Clode.

uncles and

The

I

Gallow.

said Clode,

heart.

years ago,"

were eager

Princess' father

.

.

.

"for such a tale as

Where was

I?"

Thag prompted.

"Well, your grandfather and your

to set off for

was a fellow

home and

the chase.

of small fancies, with

an

indoor turn of mind, given to dawdling over the chess board

even in the keenest hunting weather, drinking a warmish wassail full of aloes or something.

"We were

not to get off as soon or as easy as

There was the

infernal

we

thought.

custom of the country whereby a

rescued princess exercises the privilege of claiming one of

her rescuers as her husband. She was a pretty enough gray-

eyed minx but she was fond of the harp and the spinnet, with

no stomach

for the chase,

way

of

man

before he

like a cat

fluttering

on

and a

up behind

knew

it,

a

moving

velvet.

"The upshot was grandfather rode

home

that your

alone and

the Princess set Cloon and Garf

and myself each Cloon was

to

a perilous labor.

bring back the golden right wing of the great

Falcon of Ferralane. Garf, an uncouth varlet at best, though

8

The Magical Forest an angel in the saddle, was sent to bring back a drop of blood

from the right index finger of

hundred kings, an adven-

which could not conceivably be concluded within the

ture life

a

span of the

human

being; and

was

I

told off to fetch

the Princess an enormous diamond said to

paws

of a fearful creature, half dragon

cave of a mountain not

King Clode on the

filled

table before

"You were

too

many

and half

him and drank them to

roc, in

the

leagues distant."

up two tankards from

young

between the

lie

a

bowl of wine

off.

remember," he continued, "but

a traveler from faraway Ferralane passed this

way some

twenty years ago with the news that your Uncle Cloon

was bested wing,

it

in his struggle

transpired during the battle,

and pointed from

which

to this day,

it

was made of edged

by

my

enough

reasonable

is

Royal Recorder,

who

in

view of

has figured

requires ninety-seven years to procure a drop of blood

from the right index finger of

While the King Prince Jorn

filled

strummed

"To make

a

hundred kings."

his tankards again

a sorrowful

song on his

with wine, lyre.

a rather distressing story short," resumed

Clode, "the monster to

left

Your Uncle Garf has never been heard

steel.

estimates arrived at that

with the great Falcon whose

I

was dispatched

to

be made of clay and boxwood, so that

of tasks to deprive the creature of the

clutched between

its artificial

paws.

9

I

it

King

overcome proved

was the simplest

enormous diamond

delivered the stone to

The White Deer the Princess and

won

won

her hand in marriage, having already

Quondo

the fair lady's heart, as even

The King

"And

sat

back

in his great chair

there can see."

and closed

the moral of this tale," grumbled

his eyes.

Quondo,

"is pre-

what?"

cisely

The King opened one said, "is precisely

Thag and through his

eye.

"The moral

of this tale,"

he

never hunt deer in the enchanted forest."

Gallow, recital,

who had

sat staring at their father

looked at each other and at the King

again.

"We

do not

like it," said

Thag.

"Our mother having once been Jorn spoke for the

first

a deer!" said Gallow.

time. "It was but the illusory and

meaningless shape of magic," he

said,

and returned

to his

music.

"The boy has

—meaningless top.

roared

magic."

He

"Never quite got used "Don't suppose

last.

was

it,"

a

a

King Clode.

"It

was

as

he says

tapped a tankard on the table to

it,

hunting

though," he admitted at

man

ever could." There

long and thoughtful silence before Clode spoke again.

"She took

to her

chamber

of a mortal

malady shortly

after

Jorn was born, and never set foot on the stair again."

"Perhaps she died of a

fall," said

Thag.

"Perhaps she died of a surfeit," said Gallow. "Perhaps she died of a look," said Jorn.

The King

hurled a tankard at the youngest Prince and

10

The Magical Forest Jorn caught

"Has

it

in mid-air.

muttered Clode.

The

"There Royal

is

sighed. "Well, there

chair,

men who

have

He

High Chamberlain's

Royal

behind Clode's I

and his mother's grace,"

his mother's quickness

a

and the King

the tale."

is

voice spoke

suddenly

started slightly.

"Must

creep about like cats?" roared Clode. minstrel,

High Chamberlain

"Then send him

in,

Sire,"

the

/"*\ s~\

said.

then send him

\

3X^, ,^bwU

}

said the

man.

at

him,

"

The White Deer "One, two, three," "Four,

five, six," said

"Four,

five,

up

rapidly

"But

a

"A

to a thousand, a

is

and when he had counted

ruby

thousand thousand

is

fell

into the silver chalice.

a million," said Jorn,

"and

a terrible task!"

you wished

terrible task

said the

the man.

six," said Jorn,

count to a million

to

said Jorn.

for, a terrible task

you have,"

man.

Jorn counted to a thousand again, and again a ruby

fell

into the chalice.

"One, two, seven, eight,

three, four,

and

I

I

came

to pick cherries, five, six,

find rubies, nine, ten!" cried Jorn.

"Rubies, cherries, cherries, rubies," said the small "it

man,

the same thing."

is

"Eleven, twelve,

how

is it

the same thing?" asked Jorn.

"Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen."

The I

small

man

paced up and

down and

said,

"What am

doing?" "Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, you are walking

back and forth," said Jorn. "Twenty-one

"But

how

can

I

—

walk back and forth without

first

walk-

ing forth and back?" "It

is

the same thing," said Jorn.

"A man who

twenty-two, forth and back, twenty-three,

and

forth,

twenty-four,

twenty-five,

walking back

twenty-six,

seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty."

80

is

walks,

twenty-

Perilous Labor of Prince "If forth

and forth

and back

said Jorn.

back and forth, then back

see

He

how

that helps

me

in this terrible task,"

finished counting his third thousand

third cherry dropped into the silver chalice.

Thag

pace

forth

is

back," said the small one.

is

do not

"I

are

J o r n

will ride

home ahead

of

me

"At

and a

this

slow

with the golden