ay; order the
aspens to be cut down, but one must be made into a bedstead for me,
the other for you."

This satisfied the empress. The aspens were cut down, and before night
the beds were standing in the emperor's room.

When he lay down, he felt as if he had become a hundred times heavier,
yet he had never rested so well; but it seemed to the empress as if
she were lying on thorns and nettles, so that she could not sleep all
night long.

When the emperor had fallen asleep, the beds began to creak, and amid
this creaking the empress fancied she heard words that no one else
understood.

"Is it hard for you, brother?" asked one of the beds.

"No, it isn't hard for me," replied the bed in which the emperor was
sleeping, "I am happy, for my beloved father rests upon me."

"It's hard for me," replied the other, "for on me lies a wicked soul."

So the beds talked on in the empress's ears until the dawn of morning.

When daylight came, the empress planned how she could destroy the
beds. At last she ordered two bedsteads exactly like them, and when
the emperor went hunting, placed them in his room without his
knowledge; but the aspen beds, down to the very smallest splinter, she
threw into the fire.

When they were burned so entirely that not even a bit of charcoal
remained, the empress collected the ashes and scattered them to the
winds, that they might be strewn over nine countries and seas, and not
an atom find another atom through all eternity.

But she had not noticed that just when the fire was burning brightest
two sparks rose, and soaring upward, fell again into the midst of the
deep river that flowed through the empire, where they were changed
into two little fishes with golden scales, so exactly alike that
nobody could help knowing they were twin brothers.

One day the imperial fishermen went out early in the morning, and
threw their nets into the water. Just at the moment the last stars
were fading, one of the men drew up his net and beheld what he had
never seen before: two tiny fishes with golden scales.

The other fishermen assembled to see the miracle, but when they had
beheld and admired it, determined to carry the fish alive to the
emperor for a gift.

"Don't take us there, we've just come from there, and it will be our
destruction," said one of the fishes.

"But what shall I do with you?" asked the fisherman.

"Go and gather the dew from the leaves, let us swim in it, put us in
the sun, and