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Johhny the Bear and the Castle of Torments

Johnny sallied out to look for fear and made friends with a woodcutter. Johnny and his mate walked and walked and, in the end, found a man, who was standing at the door of a flourmill. The man had a millwheel on his finger, like a ring, and was amusing himself spinning it round and round his finger. Seeing this, Johnny and his mate the woodcutter said,

“The world is full of people like us!”

“Where are you going”, the miller asked them.

“To find and know fear”, they replied.

“Me too — I'd like to know fear”, said the miller.

“Come with us, then”, they told him.

And so the three went off to meet fear in the world. They came to a castle. Nobody was there, but there was plenty of food in the kitchen. There were also weapons. They tossed a coin to see who would do the cooking and the others went off to hunt. The woodcutter had to cook. The woodcutter stayed behind to make the dinner and Johnny and the miller went off hunting.

Shortly after, an old man came to the castle gates. He was dressed in poor clothes and he asked for something to eat. The woodcutter told him that he had a lot of work to do and couldn't give him anything. So the old beggar gave the miller a jolly good hiding and left him lying on his bed with pains all over his body. When Johnny and the miller arrived back, the woodcutter told them,

“My body hurts all over!”

“But, what happened to you?”, they asked him.

“My body hurts all over!”, he repeated.

“Don't worry — I'll make dinner”, said Johnny the Bear.

Johnny made the dinner and the three sat down to eat. And the woodcutter got better. The next day they tossed a coin to see who would stay behind to cook while the others went off to hunt. It was the miller who had to stay behind. After a while hunting, the woodcutter said to Johnny,

“Let's go back to the castle.”

When they got back, the miller was lying on the bed.

“My body hurts all over!”

“But, what happened to you?”, they asked him

“My body hurts all over!”, he repeated.

The next day it was Johnny who stayed behind to cook. Cooking and thinking, because he was sure there was something very fishy about all this. He thought and thought how to overcome the torments.