Page:Researches respecting the Book of Sindibad and Portuguese Folk-Tales.djvu/72

 50 daughters: one was one-eyed, the next one was lame, and the other was blind. The little girl would every day say to her father, when she came home, "Father, marry my mistress, for she gives me honey-drops." To this the father would answer, "Now she gives you honey-drops; by-and-bye she will give you gall-drops!" The father bought himself a hat, and, bringing it home, he said to his daughter, "When this hat wears out, I shall then marry your mistress." And he hung it up on a peg. The little girl went up to her mistress and recounted all that the father had said. The mistress said, "Then you must bring me the hat." When the father had gone out one day the little girl took the hat to the mistress, and she put it into an oven and tore it in several places. The girl then took it, and hung it up again. The father put it on one day, and it all came to pieces immediately. He then said to the daughter, "Now I shall marry your mistress, for my hat is completely worn out." But still he bought a pair of boots, and he said, "When these boots are worn out, I shall then marry." The girl again went up to her mistress and told her what the father had said; and she asked her to bring the boots, and she put them in the oven. The father one day went to put them on, and tore them in the act. He called his daughter to him and said, "Now I have no other remedy but to marry your mistress, for my boots are worn out." The marriage took place, but she had hardly become married when she began to ill-treat the little girl, and made her work all day, whilst the mistress's daughters did nothing whatever in the house. One day the father bought a farthing's worth of pine-nuts, and said, "My children come with me," and he took them to the wood. The son and daughter were eating their nuts, and dropping the shells as they went along on the road. They entered the wood, and as they came up to the foot of a tree the father said, "My children, remain here; and here I leave this gourd: whilst it continues to sound, it is a sign that I am in the wood; when it