The Brahman went home and performed the rites to the letter, so that the sun-god was very pleased.  Wealth came to the Brahman and he grew richer and richer, and at last the queen of the land sent for him.  The poor Brahman began to tremble and shake all over, but the queen said, “Do not shake or tremble, but give your daughters in marriage to our house.”  The Brahman said, “My daughters are poor; you will make them slaves or maid-servants.”  “No,” said the queen, “I shall not make them slaves or maid-servants; I shall marry one to a king, and one to a minister.”  The Brahman agreed, and when the month of Margashish, or December, came he gave his two daughters in marriage, one to the king and one to the minister.  Immediately after the marriage the Brahman said good-bye to his daughters, and did not see them again for twelve years.  Then he visited the elder one, who had married the king.  She gave him a wooden stand on which to sit while eating, and water in which to wash his feet, and then said, “Papa, papa, there is pudding to eat, there is water to drink.”  But the Brahman said, “Before I eat or drink, I must tell you my story.”  But his daughter said, “Papa, I have no time to listen to your story; the king is going a-hunting, and I must not keep him waiting for his dinner.”  The Brahman thought this very disrespectful and went off in a great rage to the house of his other daughter, who had married a minister.  She welcomed her father and gave him a wooden stand on which to eat, and water to wash his feet, and said, “Papa, papa, here is pudding to eat and here is water to drink.”  But the Brahman said, “Before I eat or drink I must tell you my story.”  His daughter said, “Of course, papa, tell it to me, and I shall listen as long as you like.”  Then she went into an inner room and she fetched six pearls.  She took three herself and three she put in her father’s hand.  And he told her how he had met the nymphs and wood-fairies, who had told him to worship the sun-god, and she listened to it all without missing a syllable.  Then the Brahman ate and drank and went back to his own house.  His wife asked him about their two daughters.  He told her everything and said, “The elder one who would not listen to my story will come to grief.”

And so she did.  For the king, her husband, took an army into a far country and never came back.  But the daughter who had listened to the story lived well and happy.  As time went on the undutiful daughter became poorer and poorer, until one day she said to her eldest son, “Go to your aunt’s house and beg of her to give you a present, and bring back whatever she gives you.”  Next Sunday the boy started and went to the village where his aunt lived.  Standing by the village tank he called out, “O maids, O slave-girls, whose maids and slave-girls are ye?” They answered, “We are the maids and the slave-girls of the minister.”  The boy said, “Go and tell the minister’s wife that her sister’s son is here.  Tell