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 seventeen years old, too! She will suit me admirably," said the king.

But when her father came to her and said:

"Blanzeflor, our sovereign lord, the king, would have you for his queen," she wept and said she would rather sit upon a stone and spin goats' wool, than sit as queen at that king's side.

But when her father said that she must realize that if she refused the king he would come and hang both her father and mother and all the family upon a tree like so many bunches of onions, then the princess bowed her head and said, "Then I will marry him."

So they clad her in silk and in gold, and set a crown upon her head and combed her long golden hair over her shoulders, then they lifted her upon a white palfrey and rode forth with her to the king, and thus the wedding took place.

On her wedding day the king hung a necklace of pearls around her neck.

"I threaded them myself on this silken cord," said the king. "These are pearls of the East and there are three hundred and sixty-five of them, the smallest being a little crooked; and I warn you," he added, "take