Nothing!--

The well was broad and deep.

The two brothers went home with the water, as if they had brought it
from the Fairy Aurora.

The bay neighed again, so fiercely and mournfully that even the woods
shook with fear, then rushed to the well and stood there paralyzed by
grief.

This was the story of Petru, the brave, the heroic prince. It seems as
if he were destined to arrive at an evil hour.

A banquet was held at the emperor's court, and all sorts of splendid
ceremonies were arranged. All through the land went the news that the
monarch's sons, Florea and Costan, had brought the water from the
Fairy Aurora. The emperor washed his eyes with the water and saw as
never mortal man had seen before. In the royal chamber behind the
hearth stood a cask, and in the stave of this cask he saw a worm--the
emperor could see so well that he looked through the wood. After
dividing the empire between his two brave sons, he retired to his
large private estates to spend his old age in peace. So ended the
story of the water from the Fairy Aurora's fountain. The country
celebrated the event for three days and three nights, then the people
went to work again as if nothing had happened.

After Petru had left the couch, the palace, and the court-yard, and
the sound of his flute could no longer be heard, the Fairy Aurora
recovered her consciousness, opened her eyes, raised her head, and
looked around her in every direction as if searching for something,
though she herself did not exactly know what.

"What was that?" she asked, half awake, half-dreaming--"Who?"

It seemed to her as if she had seen something in a vision,--no, in
reality,--something sweet and pleasant. A creature like a human being,
but with a more commanding glance, something unlike any thing she had
ever beheld before.

"Don't you know what it was? Did you see it too! Or, have you, too,
been asleep, been dreaming?"

Such were the questions the Fairy Aurora asked her attendant fays and
herself. She felt as if she had had a different soul ever since she
saw this wonder. But no one answered her; every one was dumb with
amazement.

The Fairy Aurora noticed the wreath: "What a beautiful garland! Who
gathered the flowers for it, who twined them into a coronal, and who
brought the wreath here and laid it on my couch?"

And the Fairy Aurora became sad.

She saw the bread on the table. Three mouthfuls were missing, one on
the right side, one on the left and one