Page:The Violet Fairy Book.djvu/339

Rh morning the emperor’s fishermen went down to the river to get some fish for their master’s breakfast, and cast their nets into the stream. As the last star twinkled out of the sky they drew them in, and among the multitude of fishes lay two with scales of gold, such as no man had ever looked on.

They all gathered round and wondered, and after some talk they decided that they would take the little fishes alive as they were, and give them as a present to the emperor.

‘Do not take us there, for that is whence we came, and yonder lies our destruction,’ said one of the fishes.

‘But what are we to do with you?’ asked the fisherman.

‘Go and collect all the dew that lies on the leaves, and let us swim in it. Then lay us in the sun, and do not come near us till the sun’s rays shall have dried off the dew,’ answered the other fish. The fisherman did as they told him—gathered the dew from the leaves and let them swim in it, then put them to lie in the sun till the dew should be all dried up.

And when he came back, what do you think he saw? Why, two boys, two beautiful young princes, with hair as golden as the stars on their foreheads, and each so like the other, that at the first glance every one would have known them for twins.

The boys grew fast. In every day they grew a year’s growth, and in every night another year’s growth, but at dawn, when the stars were fading, they grew three years’ growth in the twinkling of an eye. And they grew in other things besides height, too. Thrice in age, and thrice in wisdom, and thrice in knowledge. And when three days and three nights had passed they were twelve years in age, twenty-four in strength, and thirty-six in wisdom.

‘Now take us to our father,’ said they. So the fisher-