According to this advice, they thoroughly greased the hinge in the tree with the butter, and then set themselves to work to haul up the trunk.  This, however, was much more difficult than letting it down; and they had to lift up the head of it, and prop it up on poles, before they could pull upon it with advantage.  The tree, although tall, was indeed a very slender one, with a small top, and, if it had been as fragile as it was supposed to be, the boys’ efforts would surely have broken it.  At last, after much tugging and warm work, they pulled it into an upright position, and put in the second bolt.  They left the ropes on the tree because, as some of them had suggested, the people might want to let the tree down again the next year.  It would have been difficult for the boys to carry in their arms the great pile of fruit they had gathered; but, having noticed a basket-maker’s cottage on their way to the tree, two of them were sent to buy one of his largest baskets or hampers.  This was attached to two long poles, and, having been filled with the nuts, the boys took the poles on their shoulders, and marched into the city.

On their way to the palace they attracted a great crowd, and when they were ushered into the presence of the King, his surprise and delight knew no bounds.  At first he could scarcely believe his eyes; but he had seen the fruit so often that there could be no mistake about it.

“I shall not ask you,” he said to the boys, “how you procured this fruit, and thus accomplished a deed which has been the object of the ambition of myself and my forefathers.  All I ask is, did you leave the tree standing?”

“We did,” said the boys.

“Then all that remains to be done,” said His Majesty, “is to give you the reward you have so nobly earned.  Treasurer, measure out to each of them a quart of gold coin.  And pray be quick about it, for I am wild with desire to have a table spread, and one of these nuts cracked, that I may taste of its luscious contents.”

The boys, however, appeared a little dissatisfied.  Huddling together, they consulted in a low tone, and then the eldest boy addressed the King.

“May it please your Majesty,” he said; “we should very much prefer to have you give each of us one of those nuts instead of a quart of gold.”

The King looked grave.  “This is a much greater reward,” he said, “than I had ever expected to pay; but, since you ask it, you must have it.  You have done something which none of my subjects has ever been able to accomplish, and it is right, therefore, that you should be fully satisfied.”

So he gave them each a nut, with which they departed in triumph to the ship.

By the afternoon of the next day, the Captain had sold all his cargo at very good prices; and when the money was safely stored away in the “Horn o’ Plenty,” he made ready to sail, for he declared he had really no time to spare.  “I must now make all possible haste,” he said to old Baragat, “to find Apple Island, put these boys ashore, and then speed away to the city where lives my son.  We must not fail to get there in time to spend last Christmas over again.”