Page:Grimm Goblins (1876).djvu/69

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ROSE-BUD.

ONCE upon a time there lived a king and queen who had no children ; and this they lamented very much. But one day as the queen was walking by the side of the river, a little fish lifted its head out of the water, and said, " Your wish shall be fulfilled, and you shall soon have a daughter." What the little fish had foretold soon calne to pass; and the queen had a little girl that was so very beautiful that the king could not cease looking on it for joy, and determined to hold a great feast So he invited not only his relations, friends, and neighbours, but also all the fairies, that they might be kind and good to his little daughter. Now there were thirteen fairies in his kingdom, and he had only twelve golden dishes for them to eat out of, 80 that he was obliged to leave one of the fairies without an invitation. The rest came, and after the feast was over they gave all their best gifts to the little princess : one gave her virtue, another beauty, another riches, and so on till she had all that was excellent in the world. When eleven had done blessii^ her, the thirteenth, who had not been invited, and was very angry on that account, came in, and determined to take her revenge. So she cried out, " The king's daughter shall in her fifteenth year be wounded by a spindle, and fall down dead." Then the twelfth, who had not yet given her gift, came forward and said that the bad wish must be fulfilled, but that she could sdTten it, and that the king's daughter should not die, but fSyi asleep for a hundred years.

But the king hoped to save his dear child from the threatened evil.