boy sad, but he said nothing about
the matter at home. He hid it away in his mind until he had become a
man. Then he went to his father and mother and demanded that they
should tell him all about it.

His parents told the young man the whole story of the strange
experiences through which they had obtained their wealth. "I am now a
man," said the son. "I feel that it is right that I should go out into
the world in search of my sisters. Perhaps I might be able to find
them and aid them in some way. Give me your blessing and allow me to
go."

His father and mother gave him their blessing, and the young man
started out to make a search through all the world. Soon he came to a
house where there were three brothers quarrelling over a boot, a cap,
and a key. "What is the matter?" asked the young man. "Why are these
things so valuable that you should quarrel over them?"

The brothers replied that if one said to the boot, "O Boot, put me
somewhere," the boot would immediately put him anywhere he wished to
go. If one said to the cap, "O Cap, hide me," immediately the cap
would hide him so he could not be seen. The key could unlock any door
in the whole world. The young man at once wanted to own these things
himself, and he offered so much money for them that at last the three
brothers decided to end their quarrel by selling the boot, the cap,
and the key and dividing the money.

The young man put the three treasures in his saddle bag and went on
his way. As soon as he was out of sight of the house he said to the
boot, "O Boot, put me in the house of my eldest sister."

Immediately the young man found himself in the most magnificent palace
he had ever seen in his life. He asked to speak with his sister, but
the queen of the palace replied that she had no brother and did not
wish to be bothered with the stranger. It took much urging for the
young man to gain permission from her to relate his story; but, when
she had once heard it, everything sounded so logical that she decided
to receive him as her brother. She asked how he had ever found her
home, and how he had come through the thicket which surrounded her
palace. The young man told her about his magic boot.

In the afternoon the queen suddenly burst into tears. Her brother
asked what the trouble was. "O dear! O dear! What shall we do! What
shall we do!" sobbed the queen. "My husband is King of the Fishes.
When he comes home to dinner tonight he will be very angry to find