ter,
and that was a great grief to both of them. More than once it happened
that when the king was in a bad temper, he let it out on the poor queen,
and said that here they were now, getting old, and neither they nor the
kingdom had an heir, and it was all her fault. This was hard to listen
to, and she went and cried and vexed herself.

Finally, the king said to her one day, 'This can't be borne any longer.
I go about childless, and it's your fault. I am going on a journey and
shall be away for a year. If you have a child when I come back again,
all will be well, and I shall love you beyond all measure, and never
more say an angry word to you. But if the nest is just as empty when I
come home, then I must part with you.'

After the king had set out on his journey, the queen went about in her
loneliness, and sorrowed and vexed herself more than ever. At last her
maid said to her one day, 'I think that some help could be found, if
your majesty would seek it.' Then she told about a wise old woman in
that country, who had helped many in troubles of the same kind, and
could no doubt help the queen as well, if she would send for her. The
queen did so, and the wise woman came, and to her she confided her
sorrow, that she, was childless, and the king and his kingdom had no
heir.

The wise woman knew help for this. 'Out in the king's garden,' said she,
'under the great oak that stands on the left hand, just as one goes out
from the castle, is a little bush, rather brown than green, with hairy
leaves and long spikes. On that bush there are just at this moment three
buds. If your majesty goes out there alone, fasting, before sunrise, and
takes the middle one of the three buds, and eats it, then in six months
you will bring a princess into the world. As soon as she is born, she
must have a nurse, whom I shall provide, and this nurse must live with
the child in a secluded part of the palace; no other person must visit
the child; neither the king nor the queen must see it until it is
fourteen years old, for that would cause great sorrow and misfortune.'

The queen rewarded the old woman richly, and next morning, before the
sun rose, she was down in the garden, found at once the little bush
with the three buds, plucked the middle one and ate it. It was sweet to
taste, but afterwards was as bitter as gall. Six months after this, she
brought into the world a little girl. There was a nurse in readiness,
whom the wise woman had provid