One evening a young drummer was walking alone in a field. As he walked, he looked around and felt very good. As he walked, he came to a lake. Right on the shore, he saw three tiny white dresses that looked like they were made of linen and were very clean and beautiful.
“Wow, these little clothes are so pretty!” The drummer couldn’t help but say. Then he slipped one of them into his pocket and continued on his way home.
When he got home, he forgot about it and went to bed after taking a shower.
Just as he was about to fall asleep, he suddenly heard someone calling him, “Drummer, wake up! Drummer, wake up!”
He opened his eyes, but it was too dark to see anything. It only felt as if a shadow was hanging around his bed.
“Who are you? What are you doing?” The drummer asked.
The voice said very small and softly, “Please give me back that shirt you took from my lake tonight.”
“Then you’ll have to tell me who you are first.” The drummer replied.
“Alas ……” the voice sighed, ”I am the daughter of a king. But now I have been captured by a witch and imprisoned in a place called Glass Mountain. Every day my two sisters and I have to bathe in the lake, but I can’t fly back without that dress. My sisters have gone back, but I’m still here. Please, give me back that dress.”
When the drummer heard this, he felt quite sorry for the little girl. He said, “Don’t worry, little girl, I will return the dress to you.”
After saying that, he took out the little dress from his pocket and handed it to her. The girl took the clothes and turned around to leave.
“Wait!” The drummer said, “Maybe I can help you with something.”
The girl shook her head, “Only if you can get to the top of the glass mountain and save me from the witch. But you have no idea how to get there, and even if you knew the way, it would be hard to get up there.”
“There’s nothing I can’t do if I want to do it.” The drummer said firmly, “I just don’t know how to get to Glass Mountain right now.”
The girl thought for a moment and said, “The path goes through a big forest with lots of giants living in it. That’s all I can tell you.” With that, she put on her clothes and flew away in a flash.
Early the next morning the drummer set out. He put his drum on his back and walked confidently towards the fabled forest.
After walking for a while, he realized that there was no one around. He thought to himself, “Are all these giants sleeping? I’ll have to wake them up to do that.”
So he beat his drum hard. The thumping was so deafening that even the birds in the trees were scared away.
It wasn’t long before a giant stood up from the grass. He was taller than a pine tree.
“Hey, who are you?” The giant asked with a frown, “Why are you banging the drum here? It’s noisy!”
“Oh, I came with a thousand men.” The drummer laughed, “They’re following me behind, finding their way by the sound of my drums.”
“What are they doing here?” The giant asked a little nervously.
“They’re coming here to kill you monsters.” The drummer said in all seriousness.
“Hmph, trying to kill me?” The giant sneered, “I’ll stomp them like ants!”
“You think you can catch them?” The drummer asked rhetorically, “By the time you bend down to catch them, they’ll be long gone into hiding. And if you lay down to sleep, they’ll come running out from all sides, climb on top of you, each with a hammer, and smash your head in.”
When the giant heard this, he panicked a little. He thought to himself, “I have a way of dealing with the wolves and the bears, but these little people are so cunning that they are really no good.”
So he said to the drummer, “As long as you get out of here, I will never bother you or your people again. You can also tell me if you have any other wishes.”
The drummer said, “You have long legs and can run faster than me. Why don’t you take me to Glass Mountain. I can have my people retreat right away.”
The giant nodded, “All right, little one, come up here and I’ll take you where you want to go.”
With that, the drummer sat on the giant’s shoulders and happily drummed the whole way. The giant thought that was his way of informing the others of the retreat.
A second giant was met on the way. He picked up the drummer and put him in his buttonhole. The drummer held on to that big button and sat very still.
Then a third giant came. He put the drummer on the edge of his hat. The drummer stood on his hat and looked far over the treetops and finally saw a big, shining mountain in the distance.
“That’s the Glass Mountain, isn’t it!” Drummer thought to himself.
Sure enough, the giant walked to the foot of the mountain in a few steps. He set the drummer down, but refused to send him any further up the mountain. The drummer had to figure it out on his own.
The mountain was high and slippery, like a mirror, and no matter how hard he tried to climb up, he always slid down.
Just as he was fretting, he saw two men arguing not far away. They were fighting over a saddle.
“Why are you having a fight?” The drummer asked curiously.
“This is no ordinary saddle.” One of them said, “Whoever rides it can get wherever he wants to go at once, even if it’s the farthest place.”
The drummer listened and said, “It’s no use for you to argue like this. Why don’t I help you decide who will ride first.”
He picked up a stick and stuck it in the ground and said, “You all run toward the stick together, and whoever gets there first will ride first.”
The two men heard this and began to run. As it turned out, just a few steps into the run, the drummer jumped into the saddle and wished, “I’m going to the top of Glass Mountain!”
In the blink of an eye, he was at the top of the mountain.
At the top of the hill was an old house with a fish pond in front of it and a wooded area behind it. It was so quiet that the only sound was the wind blowing the leaves.
The drummer went to the door and knocked a few times. On the third knock, the door opened. The door was opened by a wrinkled old woman with a pair of glasses and fierce eyes.
“What are you doing here?” She asked coldly.
“I want to borrow a room for the night.” The drummer said.
The old lady said, “If you want to stay, you have to do three things for me.”
“No problem.” The drummer agreed readily, “I’m not afraid to work.”
So the old woman gave him a meal and let him rest for the night.
The next morning, she took out a thimble and handed it to the drummer, saying, “You use this to scoop all the water out of the pond, and you have to sort and line up all the fish by size.”
“How is this possible?” The drummer thought to himself, “How can you scoop up such a big pond with a thimble?”
He worked all morning and made no progress at all. At noon, he simply stopped and said to himself, “There’s no way to finish this job.”
At that moment, a pretty girl came out, carrying a basket of food.
“What’s the matter with you? Don’t look too happy.” She asked gently.
The drummer sighed and said, “I can’t even manage the first job, what about the next two? I came here to find a princess, but I haven’t found her yet.”
The girl smiled, “Let me help you. You’re tired, put your head on my lap and sleep for a while, then you’ll wake up and it’ll all be fine.”
The drummer happily agreed.
He had just closed his eyes when the girl gently turned the ring and mouthed, “Come on the water, fish out!”
Instantly, the water in the pond rose to the sky like mist, and the fish automatically jumped out of the water, neatly arranged by size and color.
The drummer woke up and was amazed.
The girl said to him, “There is one fish sitting alone on the side, and when the old woman comes later, she will surely ask what is wrong. You just throw that fish in her face and say, ‘This is for you, old hag’.”
In the evening, the old woman did come and asked the same question. The drummer did as he was told. But the old woman just looked at him coldly and was not angry.
The next day, the old woman gave the drummer another task: “You will cut down this forest today, and then split the wood into firewood and make a pile.”
She gave him some tools made of lead that were not sharp at all. The drummer knew at first glance that he couldn’t use them.
But he knew the beautiful girl would come back to help. Sure enough, at noon, the girl appeared again and let him sleep on her lap for a while.
She spun the ring again, and the whole forest came crashing down, the wood split and piled up, leaving only one branch behind.
At night, the old woman asked again what happened to the branch. The drummer picked it up and hit her hard, saying, “It’s for you, old hag.”
The old woman still didn’t respond.
She said, “Tomorrow you’re going to pile up all the wood and burn it.”
On the third day, the drummer started to move the wood, but one person just couldn’t do it all. Luckily the girl came again, and after dinner he fell asleep against her again.
When he woke up, the fire had burned so high that the whole forest had become a sea of flames.
The girl said, “Later she will let you take a piece of wood out of the fire. You must be brave enough to go in and get it, and when you come out you must throw her into the fire.”
Sure enough, the old woman said, “If you can get this piece of wood out of the fire, you are free to go.”
Without hesitation, the drummer jumped into the fire. Strangely enough, the fire did not burn him, not even his hair was scorched. He held the wood out and placed it on the ground.
The wood suddenly turned into the beautiful girl who had helped him – the very princess he had been looking for!
The old woman smiled sinisterly, “You think that’s the end of it? Not yet!”
She rushed over and tried to snatch the princess. The drummer grabbed her and threw her into the fire.
The princess looked at the drummer and said with emotion, “Thank you for saving me. I will marry you.”
They went into the house together, opened the chest where the old woman had hidden her treasure, took some gems, and then prepared to go home.
The princess said, “I can turn the ring and we can go back to your house.”
“That’s great.” The drummer said, “But wait for me outside of town while I go back to see my parents.”
Before saying goodbye, the princess urged, “Don’t ever kiss your parents on the right side of their faces, or you’ll forget me.”
“How could I forget you?” The drummer assured.
The drummer returns home to find that no one in the family recognizes him. It turns out that while he was on the mountain for three days, he was on earth for three years. His appearance has changed.
He tells his parents who he is, and the family hugs in excitement. He was so happy that in his excitement he kissed his parents on both cheeks, completely forgetting the princess’s reminder.
He dumped the gems in his pocket on the table and his parents were too surprised to speak.
Then his father built him a luxurious house, and his mother chose a bride for him, and the wedding was fixed for the following week.
And the poor princess had been waiting outside the city. She knew that the drummer must have kissed his parents right in the face and forgotten her.
She lived sadly in her hut in the forest and passed the drummer’s house every day on her way into town, hoping to get his attention. But the drummer no longer recognized her.
When she heard that the drummer was getting married, the princess decided to try again.
On the first night, she spun her ring, changed into a dress as bright as the sun, and walked into the wedding.
The bride saw the dress and immediately wanted to buy it. The princess made a deal: “I’ll give you this dress if you let me stand outside the drummer’s door tonight.”
The bride agreed, but secretly slipped a sleeping pill into the wine.
Late at night, the princess sang to the drummer’s door:
“Drummer, drummer, hear me, please.
Have you really forgotten me completely?
Did you not sit by my side on the glassy hill?
Did I not save you from the old witch’s clutches?
Have you not smiled and sworn and confessed your loyalty?
Drummer, drummer, answer me.”
Unfortunately, the drummer was too deeply asleep to hear anything.
The next day, the princess wore a silver dress like the moon and exchanged chances again. But the bride was still drugged, and the drummer still didn’t wake up.
On the third day, she changed into a dress that shone like a star. This time, the drummer didn’t drink the drug, and he heard singing.
He woke up with a start and remembered everything. He rushed into the room, took the princess by the hand, went to his parents, and said, “That’s my bride!”
So another wedding was held in the castle. The first bride was given three beautiful dresses as compensation and left satisfied.
This is the story of the drummer. He was brave and kind, and was not afraid of difficulties in order to save others. Although he almost lost his true love in the middle because of his impulsiveness, he found happiness in the end.
I hope you like this story. If you also have a dream to realize, then like the drummer, be brave and set out!
