ured the fairy, and was grateful to the old man for having told her
the truth.

[From the Italian. Kletke.]

What Came of Picking Flowers

There was once a woman who had three daughters whom she loved very much.
One day the eldest was walking in a water-meadow, when she saw a pink
growing in the stream. She stooped to pick the flower, but her hand had
scarcely touched it, when she vanished altogether. The next morning the
second sister went out into the meadow, to see if she could find any
traces of the lost girl, and as a branch of lovely roses lay trailing
across her path, she bent down to move it away, and in so doing,
could not resist plucking one of the roses. In a moment she too had
disappeared. Wondering what could have become of her two sisters, the
youngest followed in their footsteps, and fell a victim to a branch
of delicious white jessamine. So the old woman was left without any
daughters at all.

She wept, and wept, and wept, all day and all night, and went on weeping
so long, that her son, who had been a little boy when his sisters
disappeared, grew up to be a tall youth. Then one night he asked his
mother to tell him what was the matter.

When he had heard the whole story, he said, 'Give me your blessing,
mother, and I will go and search the world till I find them.'

So he set forth, and after he had travelled several miles without any
adventures, he came upon three big boys fighting in the road. He stopped
and inquired what they were fighting about, and one of them answered:

'My lord! our father left to us, when he died, a pair of boots, a key,
and a cap. Whoever puts on the boots and wishes himself in any place,
will find himself there. The key will open every door in the world, and
with the cap on your head no one can see you. Now our eldest brother
wants to have all three things for himself, and we wish to draw lots for
them.'

'Oh, that is easily settled,' said the youth. 'I will throw this stone
as far as I can, and the one who picks it up first, shall have the three
things.' So he took the stone and flung it, and while the three brothers
were running after it, he drew hastily on the boots, and said, 'Boots,
take me to the place where I shall find my eldest sister.'

The next moment the young man was standing on a steep mountain before
the gates of a strong castle guarded by bolts and bars and iron chains.
The key, which he had not forgotten to put in his pocket, opened the
doors