Page:Grimm's household tales, volume 2 (1884).djvu/441

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But the King does not hear, for the crafty Queen has prepared a sleeping-drink for him. The maiden gives her spindle for a second night, and for a third she gives her golden reel; but as she has discovered the treachery, she this time asks the servant to substitute another drink for the sleeping-drink. So now when she begins to sing once more, the King hears her, recognizes the maiden's voice, and next morning has himself separated from his wife, sends her back to her father, and marries the faithful maiden who has set him free. This tale contains that part of our story where it is allied with The Singing Soaring Lark (No. 88), with the conclusion of The Two Kings' Children (No. 113), and with Pintosmauto, in the Pentamerone, 5. 3; on the other hand, a story from the district of the Maine, contains, in a varying form, the beginning of our story. A certain King loses himself when he is hunting. A little white dwarf appears and points out the way to him, in return for which the King promises him his youngest daughter. "In a week," cries the dwarf when he takes leave, "I will come and fetch my bride." The King repents the promise given in his distress, and when the appointed day arrives, the cow-herd's daughter, arrayed in royal apparel, is placed in the royal apartment. A fox comes, and says to her, "Seat thyself on my bushy tail, and hurly burly, we will out into the forest." The girl obeys, and the fox carries her away on his tail. When they reach a green place where the sun is shining delightfully warm, he says, "Get off and clean my coat for me." The girl obeys; and as she is doing it, she says, "It was beautiful in the forest this time yesterday." "How did you happen to be in the forest?" says the fox. "Oh, I was there, tending my father's cows." "Then, you are not the King's daughter! Seat yourself on my bushy tail, and then hurly burly back to the palace." And now the fox demands the true bride from the King, and says he will return in a week's time. But they give him the goose-herd's daughter, dressed like the princess; she however betrays herself, while she is cleaning his coat, by exclaiming, "I wonder where my geese are now?" She has to go back again on the fox's tail, and he threatens the King if he does not give him his bride in a week's time. Then in their fear they give her to him. When she is in the forest and has to clean his coat, she says, "I am a King's daughter, and yet I have to do this for a fox! If I were but sitting at home in my own room, I should be able to see the flowers in my garden." Then the fox knows that she is the