by yourself, my friend,' said the
ogress; 'but what I have promised, that will I do.'

And then she gave him his reward.

'The thing which lay on the top of the bed' turned out to be the lost
princess. 'The chest which stood at the foot of the bed' proved full of
gold and precious stones; and 'what was under the side of the cave' he
found to be a great ship, with oars and sails that went of itself as
well on land as in the water. 'You are the luckiest man that ever was
born,' said the ogress as she went out of the cave as usual.

With much difficulty the youth put the heavy chest on his shoulders and
carried it on board the ship, the princess walking by his side. Then he
took the helm and steered the vessel back to her father's kingdom. The
king's joy at receiving back his lost daughter was so great that he
almost fainted, but when he recovered himself he made the young man tell
him how everything had really happened. 'You have found her, and you
shall marry her,' said the king; and so it was done. And this is the end
of the story.

[From Ungarische Mahrchen.]

The Three Robes

Long, long ago, a king and queen reigned over a large and powerful
country. What their names were nobody knows, but their son was called
Sigurd, and their daughter Lineik, and these young people were famed
throughout the whole kingdom for their wisdom and beauty.

There was only a year between them, and they loved each other so much
that they could do nothing apart. When they began to grow up the king
gave them a house of their own to live in, with servants and carriages,
and everything they could possibly want.

For many years they all lived happily together, and then the queen fell
ill, and knew that she would never get better.

'Promise me two things,' she said one day to the king; 'one, that if
you marry again, as indeed you must, you will not choose as your wife a
woman from some small state or distant island, who knows nothing of the
world, and will be taken up with thoughts of her grandeur. But rather
seek out a princess of some great kingdom, who has been used to courts
all her life, and holds them at their true worth. The other thing I have
to ask is, that you will never cease to watch over our children, who
will soon become your greatest joy.'

These were the queen's last words, and a few hours later she was dead.
The king was so bowed down with sorrow that he would not attend even to
the business of the kingdom, and a