sity, and agreed with the Prince that it could only belong to the
daughter of a good house. Then the King, having embraced his son, and
entreated him to get well, went out. He ordered the drums and fifes
and trumpets to be sounded throughout the town, and the heralds to cry
that she whose finger a certain ring would fit should marry the heir
to the throne.

First the Princesses arrived, then the duchesses, and the marquises,
and the baronesses; but though they did all they could to make their
fingers small, none could put on the ring. So the country girls had to
be tried, but pretty though they all were, they all had fingers that
were too fat. The Prince, who was feeling better, made the trial
himself. At last it was the turn of the chamber-maids; but they
succeeded no better. Then, when everyone else had tried, the Prince
asked for the kitchen-maids, the scullions, and the sheep-girls. They
were all brought to the palace, but their coarse red, short, fingers
would hardly go through the golden hoop as far as the nail.

"You have not brought that Donkey-skin, who made me the cake," said
the Prince.

Everyone laughed and said, "No," so dirty and unpleasant was she.

"Let someone fetch her at once," said the King; "it shall not be said
that I left out the lowliest." And the servants ran laughing and
mocking to find the goose-girl.

The Princess, who had heard the drums and the cries of the heralds,
had no doubt that the ring was the cause of this uproar. Now, she
loved the Prince, and, as true love is timorous and has no vanity, she
was in perpetual fear that some other lady would be found to have a
finger as small as hers. Great, then, was her joy when the messengers
came and knocked at her door. Since she knew that they were seeking
the owner of the right finger on which to set her ring, some impulse
had moved her to arrange her hair with great care, and to put on her
beautiful silver corsage, and the petticoat full of furbelows and
silver lace studded with emeralds. At the first knock she quickly
covered her finery with the donkey-skin and opened the door. The
visitors, in derision, told her that the King had sent for her in
order to marry her to his son. Then with loud peals of laughter they
led her to the Prince, who was astonished at the garb of this girl,
and dared not believe that it was she whom he had seen so majestic and
so beautiful. Sad and confounded, he said, "Is it you who lodge at the
bottom of that