It was really very tiresome, but as there was no help for it I went
down!

'But the instant breakfast was over they began again their cuckoo-cry of
"What will you do?" In vain did I answer--

'"Nothing at all, if it please you, madam."

'The Queen at last gave me a spindle and about four pounds of hemp upon
a distaff, and sent me out to keep the sheep, assuring me that there
could not be a pleasanter occupation, and that I could take my ease as
much as I pleased. I was forced to set out, very unwillingly, as you may
imagine, but I had not walked far before I came to a shady bank in what
seemed to me a charming place. I stretched myself cosily upon the soft
grass, and with the bundle of hemp for a pillow slept as tranquilly as
if there were no such things as sheep in the world, while they for their
part wandered hither and thither at their own sweet will, as if there
were no such thing as a shepherdess, invading every field, and browsing
upon every kind of forbidden dainty, until the peasants, alarmed by the
havoc they were making, raised a clamour, which at last reached the
ears of the King and Queen, who ran out, and seeing the cause of the
commotion, hastily collected their flock. And, indeed, the sooner the
better, since they had to pay for all the damage they had done. As for
me I lay still and watched them run, for I was very comfortable,
and there I might be still if they had not come up, all panting and
breathless, and compelled me to get up and follow them; they also
reproached me bitterly, but I need hardly tell you that they did not
again entrust me with the flock.

'But whatever they found for me to do it was always the same thing, I
spoilt and mismanaged it all, and was so successful in provoking even
the most patient people, that one day I ran away from the farm, for I
was really afraid the Queen would be obliged to beat me. When I came to
the little river in which the King used to fish, I found the boat tied
to a tree, and stepping in I unfastened it, and floated gently down
with the current. The gliding of the boat was so soothing that I did not
trouble myself in the least when the Queen caught sight of me and ran
along the bank, crying--

'"My boat, my boat! Husband, come and catch the little Princess who is
running away with my boat!"

'The current soon carried me out of hearing of her cries, and I dreamed
to the song of the ripples and the whisper of the trees, until the boat
suddenly stopped, a