“So when the Queen had another little daughter she was quite frightened, and agreed with her sister (who was a fairy) to exchange her for the fairy’s little son.  Now the Queen had been shut up in a great tower by the King’s orders, and when a great many days went by and still she heard nothing from the Fairy she made her escape from the window by means of a rope ladder, taking her little baby with her.  After wandering about until she was half dead with cold and fatigue she reached this cottage.  I was the laborer’s wife, and was a good nurse, and the Queen gave you into my charge, and told me all her misfortunes, and then died before she had time to say what was to become of you.

“As I never in all my life could keep a secret, I could not help telling this strange tale to my neighbors, and one day a beautiful lady came here, and I told it to her also.  When I had finished she touched me with a wand she held in her hand, and instantly I became a hen, and there was an end of my talking!  I was very sad, and my husband, who was out when it happened, never knew what had become of me.  After seeking me everywhere he believed that I must have been drowned, or eaten up by wild beasts in the forest.  That same lady came here once more, and commanded that you should be called Felicia, and left the ring and the pot of pinks to be given to you; and while she was in the house twenty-five of the King’s guards came to search for you, doubtless meaning to kill you; but she muttered a few words, and immediately they all turned into cabbages.  It was one of them whom you threw out of your window yesterday.

“I don’t know how it was that he could speak—­I have never heard either of them say a word before, nor have I been able to do it myself until now.”

The Princess was greatly astonished at the hen’s story, and said kindly:  “I am truly sorry for you, my poor nurse, and wish it was in my power to restore you to your real form.  But we must not despair; it seems to me, after what you have told me, that something must be going to happen soon.  Just now, however, I must go and look for my pinks, which I love better than anything in the world.”

Bruno had gone out into the forest, never thinking that Felicia would search in his room for the pinks, and she was delighted by his unexpected absence, and thought to get them back without further trouble.  But as soon as she entered the room she saw a terrible army of rats, who were guarding the straw bed; and when she attempted to approach it they sprang at her, biting and scratching furiously.  Quite terrified, she drew back, crying out:  “Oh! my dear pinks, how can you stay here in such bad company?”

Then she suddenly bethought herself of the pitcher of water, and, hoping that it might have some magic power, she ran to fetch it, and sprinkled a few drops over the fierce-looking swarm of rats.  In a moment not a tail or a whisker was to be seen.  Each one had made for his hole as fast as his legs could carry him, so that the Princess could safely take her pot of pinks.  She found them nearly dying for want of water, and hastily poured all that was left in the pitcher upon them.  As she bent over them, enjoying their delicious scent, a soft voice, that seemed to rustle among the leaves, said: