THE QUEEN BEE

Two kings 'sons went into the world to seek their fortunes. They soon lived in a wasteful and foolish way and could not return home. Then their little brother, a dwarf, went to seek them. When he found them they laughed at him because he was young and simple. Yet they all began a journey together and came at last to an ant hill. The two elder brothers wanted to pull it down to scare the ants and take their eggs. The dwarf stopped them. He said he would not let them trouble the ants.

They then came to a lake with many ducks swimming there. The two brothers wanted to catch two ducks and roast them. The dwarf did not agree. He said the ducks should be free, not killed.

They next found a bees 'nest in a hollow tree. There was so much honey that it ran down the trunk. The two brothers wanted to light a fire under the tree and burn the bees to get the honey. The dwarf stopped them. He said the pretty insects should enjoy themselves and he could not let them burn them.

At last they came to a castle. In the stables they saw fine horses, all of marble and no man was to be seen. They went through the rooms until they came to a door with three locks. In the middle of the door was a wicket, so that they could look into the next room. There they saw a little grey old man sitting at a table. They called to him, but he did not hear. After they called a third time he rose and came out to them.

He said nothing, but he led them to a beautiful table with all sorts of good things to eat and drink. When they had eaten and drunk, he showed each of them to a bed-chamber.

Next morning he came to the eldest and took him to a marble table. There were three tablets on the table. The tablets told how the castle could be freed from the spell. The first tablet said that in the wood, under the moss, lie a thousand pearls that belong to the king's daughter. They must all be found. If one is missing by sunset, the seeker will be turned into marble.

The eldest began to search for the pearls the whole day. But when evening came he had not found the first hundred. He was turned into stone, as the tablet said.

On the next day the second brother tried the task. He did not do better. He could only find the second hundred pearls. So he too was turned into stone.

At last came the dwarf's turn. He looked in the moss; but it was very hard to find the pearls, and the job was long. He sat down on a stone and cried. Then the king of the ants, whose life he had saved, came to help him, with five thousand ants. Soon they had found all the pearls and laid them in a heap.

The second tablet said that the key of the princess's bed-chamber must be fished up out of the lake. And as the dwarf came to the brink of it, he saw the two ducks whose lives he had saved swimming there; they dived down and soon brought up the key from the bottom.

The third tablet was the hardest. It said to choose the youngest and the best of the king's three daughters. All three were beautiful and alike, but he was told that the eldest had eaten a piece of sugar, the next some syrup, and the youngest a spoonful of honey; so he was to guess which it was that had eaten the honey.

Then came the queen of the bees, who had been saved by the little dwarf from the fire, and she tried the lips of all three; but at last she sat upon the lips of the one that had eaten the honey, and so the dwarf knew which was the youngest. Thus the spell was broken, and all who had been turned into stones woke, and took their proper forms. And the dwarf married the youngest and the best of the princesses, and was king after his father's death; but his two brothers married the other two sisters.