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Johhny the Bear in the King of Hungary's Court

Johnny the bear had been stranded in the cave below because his “friends” had thrown down the rope and gone off with the king's daughters to the lands of Hungary. There was nobody to pull Johnny up in the basket. But then he remembered that he wasn't alone. He went to the woman of the thirteen doors and told her,

“If you don't get me out of here, I'll beat the fleas out of you with this big club.”

And, on seeing the club that weighed a hundredweight with which Johnny had broken down the thirteen doors, the woman led him out of the cave. But his “friends”, the woodcutter and the miller, were at the King of Hungary's Court.

“We got your children out of the cave”, they told him

The king made them princes and organised a big party for them. As the music started, a stranger arrived in the town who was strong and hairy and carried a big club that weighed a hundredweight. He stuck the big club in the middle of the square and began to play with the golden ball that one of the King's daughters had given him. The palace guards told the King what was happening in the town square below.

“It's Johnny the Bear!”, said the King's daughters.

On hearing this, Johnny's friends, the woodcutter and the miller, became agitated.

“How do you know?”, asked the King of his daughters.

“Because we know him.”

The King ordered six soldiers to find him.

“Come with us. The king wishes to see you”, they told him.

“If he wants to see me, he'll have to come here”, responded Johnny.

“If you do not want to come, we will take you by force.”

But Johnny warned them to be very careful or else,

“You won't be taking me by force, I tell you now”, he warned them.

But the six soldiers jumped on the bear but Johnny, with a swift swipe of his big club that weighed a hundredweight, killed five of them in one go. The sixth soldier fled back to the castle.

“Your Highness”, said the soldier when he arrived before the King, “even if you send a dozen soldiers, it will be impossible to bring him here.”

“Father, it is him, Johnny the Bear!”, said the King's daughters.

That was when Johnny's “friends”, the woodcutter and the miller, discovered the meaning of fear! The King and his daughters went to the town square where Johnny was playing with the golden ball. The daughters gave him a big bear hug. Then Johnny stopped to inspect the dresses of the sisters.

“Those dresses are each missing a piece of cloth.”

And he showed them the seven pieces of cloth that the sisters had given him in the cave as a present. And Johnny the Bear stayed in the palace with the King's daughters. The King, seeing that Johnny was the true saviour of his daughters, banished the woodcutter and the miller, Johnny's friends, from Hungary.

But Johnny wanted to find out about fear and, after a few years, he left the King of Hungary's Court to continue his journey through the world.