Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 26, 1915.djvu/314

304 search of game, and slowly, slowly he got further and further away from the Girl, until at last he came to the cart, jumped into it, and ran away.

When the Emperor's daughter came out of her dreaming, she realised that the Faithful Servant was not there! She called out, she screamed, she cried! But no one answered. What was she to do? And as she saw that night was falling, the Girl climbed up a tree, looked here and looked there, to see if by chance there were a hut or anything. But no, there was not. So she climbed up another tree, and looked again, and then she saw, aei, aei ever so far away, a faint light twinkling between the dark trees like a star. So then she came down, and with the basket in one hand and the jug in the other, the Girl set forth straight towards that light.

When she came near to the light, the Girl saw that it was a tiny little cottage; a candle was burning in the window. She knocked at the door, it opened, and a poor Old Woman came out. The Girl begged to be sheltered for the night, and the poor Old Woman asked her in; but she told her that she had no food to give her, as she was very, very poor; a Hen, a Dog, and a Cat were all she possessed in the world.

The Girl took food out of her basket, and shared it with the Old Woman.

Next day, when they got up, the Old One began to moan and to weep, for the Hen had died on her nest. What should she do now? She would starve, for the one egg the Hen used to lay every day was all she had to live upon.

Our poor Girl gave her a jewel with which to buy herself another Hen.

The Old Woman refused at first, and wept, but in the end she had to accept the Girl's present and be quiet.

However, the Dog died on the second night.

Then she said:

"My daughter, I am afraid you will have to go away from here. For since you came misfortunes have come upon me in, a chain. I would not have exchanged my Dog for anything in the world, because he guarded my little cottage, and because I have had him for so many big years."