Then a strong wind sprang up, which blew away Conrad’s hat right over the fields, and he had to run after it.  When he came back her hair was all put up again.

When they got home Conrad went to the King and said, “I won’t tend the geese with that maiden again.”

“Why not?” asked the King.

Then Conrad went on to tell the King all that had happened in the field.  The King ordered Conrad to go next day as usual and he followed into the field and hid behind a bush.  He saw it happen just as Conrad had told him.  Thereupon he went away unnoticed; and in the evening, when the Goose-girl came home, he asked her why she did all these things.

“That I may not tell you,” she answered.

Then he said, “If you won’t tell me, then tell the iron stove there;” and he went away.

She crept up to the stove and unburdened her heart to it.  The King stood outside by the pipes of the stove and heard all she said.  Then he came back, and caused royal robes to be put upon her, and her beauty was a marvel.  Then he called his son and told him that he had a false bride, but that the true bride was here.

The Prince was charmed with her beauty and a great banquet was prepared.  The bridegroom sat at the head of the table, with the Princess on one side and the Waiting-woman at the other; but she did not recognize the Princess.

When they had eaten, the King put a riddle to the Waiting-woman.  “What does a person deserve that deceives his master?” telling the whole story.

The false bride answered, “He must be put into a barrel and dragged along by two white horses till he is dead.”

“That is your doom,” said the King, “and the judgment shall be carried out.”

When the sentence was fulfilled, the young Prince married his true bride, and they lived together in peace and happiness.

BABES IN THE WOOD

Once upon a time there lived two little children whose parents were ill unto death.  They begged their brother to care for the two little ones as he would his own.

The uncle promised he would be a father to them, but he soon began to scheme to possess the money the parents had left in his care for the children.  He sent for two robbers and bargained with them to take the two babes into the woods and kill them.

After going many miles into the woods one of the robbers said, “Let us not kill the little children, they never harmed us.”  The other robber would not consent, so they came to blows.  This frightened the children so much that they ran away and did not see the robbers again.

They wandered on and on until they became so tired and hungry that at length they sat down at the foot of a tree and cried as if their hearts would break.  The little birds heard them and began to trill sweet lullabies, which presently lulled them to rest.

The birdies knew that the children would die of cold and hunger, so they covered them with leaves of crimson and brown and green.  They then told the angels in Heaven the sad story of the lost babes, and one of the white-robed angels flew down to earth and carried both the little ones back to Heaven, so that when they awoke they were no longer tired and hungry, but were again with their dear mother.