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Rh to fetch you the half of my goods—my pot of pinks which can never be in better hands than yours."

"Go then, Fortunée," said the Queen, gently patting her cheek, "I consent to remain here till your return." Fortunée took her golden pitcher and ran to her little room, but during her absence Bedou had entered, taken away her pot of pinks, and put in their place a large cabbage.

When Fortunée saw this wretched cabbage, she was plunged in despair, and hesitated about returning to the fountain at all.

At length she determined she would do so, and throwing herself on her knees before the Queen, said, "Madam, Bedou has stolen my flowers; I have nothing now remaining but my ring; I hope you will accept that in proof of my gratitude." "If I take your ring, fair Shepherdess," said the Queen, "you are completely ruined."

"Ah! Madam," she answered with an air of great intelligence; "while I possess your good opinion, I can never be ruined." The Queen took the ring, placed it on her finger, and then mounted a car of coral, enriched with emeralds, and drawn by six white horses more beautiful than the steeds of the sun.

Fortunée gazed after her as long as she could. At last a turn of the road in the forest hid her from her sight, and she then returned to Bedou's cottage full of this adventure.

The first thing she did, on entering her chamber, was to throw the cabbage out of window, but she was much astonished to hear a voice cry, "Ah! I am killed." She could not tell what to make of this exclamation, as in general cabbages do not speak. As soon as it was light, Fortunée, uneasy about her pot of pinks, went down into the garden to search for them, and the first thing she found was the unhappy cabbage; she gave it a kick, saying, "What dost thou here, thou that didst presume to take in my chamber the place of my pinks?" "If I had not been carried, it would never have entered my head to go there," replied the cabbage. Fortunée trembled, for she was very much frightened; but the cabbage said again to her, "If you will carry me to my companions, I can tell you in two words that your pinks are in Bedou's straw mattrass." Fortunée, in despair, knew not how to recover them. She kindly planted the cabbage, and then taking up her brother's favourite hen, she said to it, "Naughty thing, I will now make you pay for all the misery which