Page:Czech Folk Tales.pdf/93

Rh eye can see them. The dove will turn into a lovely princess and you may marry her."

So he took the dove and returned home. He had a house built and made a secret place in one of the walls for the three feathers. When he plucked out the feathers the dove became a beautiful princess, but she did not know where the feathers were. But his mother knew quite well, for he had told her all and showed her where the feathers were hidden.

When they had been living together for three years he went a-hunting one day with another lord, and his mother stayed at home with her daughter-in-law. The mother said to her: "Dear daughter-in-law, I can't tell you how beautiful I think you. If one were to search the whole world through, one couldn't find so beautiful a woman."

The daughter-in-law answered: "Dear lady, the beauty I have now is nothing to what I should have had I but one of my golden feathers."

The mother went straight off, fetched one of the feathers, and gave it to her.

She thrust it into her skin, and she was immediately far more beautiful than before. The mother kept looking at her, and said: