love me, my dear?"

And she answered as pat as may be, "As I love my life."

"Very good, my dear," said he, and gave her a kiss. Then he said to the
second girl, "How much do you love me, my dear?"

And she answered as swift as thought, "Better than all the world
beside."

"Good!" he replied, and patted her on the cheek. Then he turned to the
youngest, who was also the prettiest.

"And how much do _you_ love me, my dearest?"

Now the youngest daughter was not only pretty, she was clever. So she
thought a moment, then she said slowly:

"I love you as fresh meat loves salt!"

Now when her father heard this he was very angry, because he really
loved her more than the others.

"What!" he said. "If that is all you give me in return for all I've
given you, out of my house you go." So there and then he turned her out
of the home where she had been born and bred, and shut the door in her
face.

Not knowing where to go, she wandered on, and she wandered on, till she
came to a big fen where the reeds grew ever so tall and the rushes
swayed in the wind like a field of corn. There she sate down and plaited
herself an overall of rushes and a cap to match, so as to hide her fine
clothes, and her beautiful golden hair that was all set with milk-white
pearls. For she was a wise girl, and thought that in such lonely
country, mayhap, some robber might fall in with her and kill her to get
her fine clothes and jewels.

It took a long time to plait the dress and cap, and while she plaited
she sang a little song:

"Hide my hair, O cap o' rushes,
Hide my heart, O robe o' rushes.
Sure! my answer had no fault,
I love him more than he loves salt."

And the fen birds sate and listened and sang back to her:

"Cap o' rushes, shed no tear,
Robe o' rushes, have no fear;
With these words if fault he'd find,
Sure your father must be blind."

When her task was finished she put on her robe of rushes and it hid all
her fine clothes, and she put on the cap and it hid all her beautiful
hair, so that she looked quite a common country girl. But the fen birds
flew away, singing as they flew:

"Cap-o-rushes! we can see,
Robe o' rushes! what you be,
Fair and clean, and fine and tidy,
So you'll be whate'er betide ye."

By this time she was very, very hungry, so she wandered on, and she
wandered on; but ne'er a cottage or a hamlet did she see, till just at
sun-setting she came on a great house on the edge