Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/398



once on a time there was, as there well might be, a king. He had two daughters who were ugly and bad, but the third was as fair and as soft as the bright day, and the king and every one was glad of her. So one day she dreamt of a golden wreath that was so lovely she couldn't live until she had it. But as she could not get it, she grew sullen and wouldn't so much as talk for grief; and when the king knew it was the wreath she sorrowed for, he sent out a pattern cut just like the one that the princess had dreamt of, and sent word to goldsmiths in every land to see if they could get the like of it. So the goldsmiths worked night and day; but some of the wreaths she tossed away from her, and the rest she would not so much as look at.

But once when she was in the wood she set her eyes upon a white bear, who had the very wreath she had dreamt of between his paws, and played with it.