ed the girl and said: "Ah,
dear daughter, let me comb your hair." The young girl replied: "No, the
like of me do not wish it." Again she said: "Come, my dear daughter, let
me comb you!" Tired of being asked so often by the old woman, the girl
at last allowed her to comb her hair, and what did that monster of an
old witch take it into her head to do. She stuck a pin through the
girl's temples from side to side, and the girl at once was changed into
a dove. What did this wretch of an old woman then do? She got into the
couch in the place of the young girl, who flew away.

Meanwhile the prince reached his mother's house, and she said to him:
"Dear son, where have you been? how have you spent all this time?" "Ah,
my mother," said he "what a lovely girl I have for my wife!" "Dear son,
where have you left her?" "Dear mother, I have left her between two
trees, the leaves of one are of gold and the fruit is silver, the leaves
of the other one are silver and the fruit gold."

Then the queen gave a grand banquet, invited many guests, and made ready
many carriages to go and bring the young girl. They mounted their
horses, they entered their carriages, they set out, but when they
reached the trees they saw the ugly old woman, all wrinkled, in the
couch between the trees, and the white dove on top of them.

The poor prince, you can imagine it! was grieved to the heart, and
ashamed at seeing the ugly old woman. His father and mother, to satisfy
him, took the old woman, put her in a carriage, and carried her to the
palace, where the wedding-feast was prepared. The prince was
downhearted, but his mother said to him: "Don't think about it, my son,
for she will become beautiful again." But her son could not think of
eating or of talking. The dinner was brought on and the guests placed
themselves at the round table. Meanwhile, the dove flew up on the
kitchen balcony, and began to sing:

"Let the cook fall asleep,
Let the roast be burned,
Let the old witch be unable to eat of it."

The guests waited for the cook to put the roast on the table. They
waited, and waited and waited, and at last they got up and went to the
kitchen, and there they found the cook asleep. They called and called
him, and at last he awoke, but soon became drowsy again. He said he did
not know what was the matter with him, but he could not stand up. He put
another roast on the spit, however. Then the dove again flew on the
balcony and sang:

"L