Advanced Fairy Tale

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It's been a long time since I've read a fairy tale. But if I remember correctly, most of them are scary, with disastrous endings for some, if not all, of the characters, sometimes my favorites. Like the step-mother in Cinderella. Doesn't she get carted off to jail by CPS? I'm a step-mother, so I wasn't pleased by that.

I went on a search for "Grimm's Fairy Tales" to see if there were any with happy endings for everyone. I learned that the book contains 209 tales! I clicked on a few, with mixed success, until I came upon this one. At last, a fairy tale that covers everything in a math or physics or philosophy or theology class! Here it is, The Shepherd Boy:

There was once upon a time a shepherd boy whose fame spread far and wide because of the wise answers which he gave to every question. 

The king of the country heard of it likewise, but did not believe it, and sent for the boy. Then he said to him, if you can give me an answer to three questions which I will ask you, I will look on you as my own child, and you shall dwell with me in my royal palace. 

The boy said, what are the three questions. 

The king said, the first is, how many drops of water are there in the ocean.  The shepherd boy answered, lord king, if you will have all the rivers on earth dammed up so that not a single drop runs from them into the sea until I have counted it, I will tell you how many drops there are in the sea.

The king said, the next question is, how many stars are there in the sky.  The shepherd boy said, give me a great sheet of white paper, and then he made so many fine points on it with a pen that they could scarcely be seen, and it was all but impossible to count them, any one who looked at them would have lost his sight.  Then he said, there are as many stars in the sky as there are pointson the paper.  Just count them.  But no one was able to do it.

The king said, the third question is, how many seconds of time are there in eternity.  Then said the shepherd boy, in lower pomerania is the diamond mountain, which is two miles high, two miles wide, and two miles deep.  Every hundred years a little bird comes and sharpens its beak on it, and when the whole mountain is worn away by this, then the first second of eternity will be over.

Wow, talk about 3 striking ways of explaining countable infinities! I wish I'd heard THAT when I was a kid.

And of course, the tale has a happy ending:

The king said, you have answered the three questions like a wise man, and shall henceforth dwell with me in my royal palace, and I will regard you as my own child.