ace, and asked what
ailed her. She had gone too near the fire, she told him, and had burnt
all the flax that was on her distaff.

'Is that all?' said the king, and going up to his storeroom he brought
her more flax than she could have spun in a hundred years.

But the queen continued sad, and again the king asked what ailed her.
She declared that in walking by the river she had let her green satin
slipper fall into the water.

'Is that all?' said the king, and summoning all the shoemakers in the
kingdom he brought her ten thousand green satin slippers.

Still she grieved, and once more he asked what ailed her. She told him
that in eating with rather too vigorous an appetite she had swallowed
her wedding-ring, which had been on her finger. The king knew at once
that she was not telling the truth, for he had put away this ring
himself.

'My dear wife,' he said, 'you lie; I put away your ring in my
purse--here it is!'

She was not a little confused at being caught telling a lie (for there
is nothing in the world so ugly), and she saw that the king was
displeased. She told him, therefore, what the fairies had prophesied of
little Rosette, and implored him to say if he could think of any good
remedy.

The king was plunged in the deepest melancholy, so much so that he
remarked on one occasion to the queen: 'I see no other means of saving
our two sons but to bring about the death of our little child while she
is still in long clothes.' But the queen exclaimed that she would rather
suffer death herself. She would never consent, she declared, to such a
cruel course, and he must think of something else.

The royal pair were at their wits' end when the queen was told that in a
forest near the city there lived an aged hermit. His habitation was a
hollow tree, and folks were wont to seek his advice upon all manner of
things. 'I too must go there,' said the queen; 'the fairies have warned
me of the evil, but they have forgotten to tell me of the remedy.'

She rose betimes and mounted a dainty little white mule that was shod
with gold, and took with her two of her ladies, each riding a bonny
horse. When they had entered the wood they dismounted, as a sign of
deference, and presented themselves at the tree where the hermit lived.
The latter had an aversion from the sight of women, but on recognising
the queen he addressed her.

'You are welcome,' he said; 'what do you want of me?'

She told him what the fairies had said o