the
recovered treasure. And Princess Osra stood looking at her.

"Aye, you'll find another husband," nodded the priest encouragingly.

"Aye, you'll find another husband," assented the miller placidly. "And
just as one girl is pretty nearly as good as another--if she is handy
and sturdy--so one husband is as good as another, if he can keep a
house over you."

Princess Osra said nothing. But Gertrude, having picked up the crowns,
came to her with a full apron, saying:

"Hold your lap, and I'll pour them in. They'll get you a good husband."

Princess Osra suddenly bent and kissed Gertrude's cheek, and she said
gently:

"I hope you have got a good husband, my dear; but let him do some work
for himself. And keep the six hundred crowns as a present from me, for
he will value you more with eight hundred than with two."

The eyes of all three were fixed on her in wonder and almost in fear,
for her tone and manner were now different. Then she turned to the
miller, and she bit her lip and dashed her hand across her eyes, and
she said:

"And you, miller, are the only sensible man I have found in all the
kingdom. Therefore good luck and a good wife to you." And she gave a
little short laugh, and turned and walked out of the cottage, leaving
them all spellbound in wonder. But the miller rose from his chair and
ran to the door, and when he reached it the King was just lifting Osra
on to her horse; the miller knew the King, and stood there with eyes
wide and cheeks bulged in wonder; but he could gasp out no more than
"The King, the King!" before Rudolf and Osra were far away. And they
could, none of them, neither the miller, nor Gertrude, nor the priest,
tell what the matter meant, until one day King Rudolf rode again to the
mill at Hofbau, and, having sent for the priest, told the three enough
of the truth, saying that the affair was the outcome of a jest at
Court; and he made each of them a handsome present, and vowed them to
secrecy by their fealty and attachment to his person and his honour.

"So she would not have married me, anyhow?" asked the miller.

"I think not, friend," answered Rudolf with a laugh.

"Then we are but quits and all is well. Gertrude, the jug, my lass!"

And so, indeed, it seemed to the King that they were but quits, and so
he said to the Princess Osra. But he declared that she had so far
prevailed with the miller as to make him desire marriage as an
excellent and useful thing in its