ter, in order not to let
slip the good luck. But Luceta, who was very unwell, commending the
lamb to the wolf, begged her sister to have the kindness to accompany
Marziella to the court of Chiunzo for such and such a thing. Whereupon
Troccola, who saw that matters were playing into her hand, promised her
sister to take Marziella safe and sound to her brother, and then
embarked with her niece and Puccia in a boat. But when they were some
way out at sea, whilst the sailors were asleep, she threw Marziella
into the water; and just as the poor girl was on the point of being
drowned there came a most beautiful syren, who took her in her arms and
carried her off.

When Troccola arrived at Chiunzo, Ciommo, who had not seen his sister
for so long a time, mistook Puccia, and received her as if she were
Marziella, and led her instantly to the King. But no sooner did she
open her lips than toads dropped on the ground; and when the King
looked at her more closely he saw, that as she breathed hard from the
fatigue of the journey, she made a lather at her mouth, which looked
just like a washtub; then looking down on the ground, he saw a meadow
of stinking plants, the sight of which made him quite ill. Upon this he
drove Puccia and her mother away, and sent Ciommo in disgrace to keep
the geese of the court.

Then Ciommo, in despair and not knowing what had happened to him, drove
the geese into the fields, and letting them go their way along the
seashore, he used to retire into a little straw shed, where he bewailed
his lot until evening, when it was time to return home. But whilst the
geese were running about on the shore, Marziella would come out of the
water, and feed them with sweetmeats, and give them rose-water to
drink; so that the geese grew as big as sheep, and were so fat that
they could not see out of their eyes. And in the evening when they came
into a little garden under the King's window, they began to sing--

"Pire, pire pire!
The sun and the moon are bright and clear,
But she who feeds us is still more fair."

Now the King, hearing this goose-music every evening, ordered Ciommo to
be called, and asked him where, and how, and upon what he fed his
geese. And Ciommo replied, "I give them nothing to eat but the fresh
grass of the field." But the King, who was not satisfied with this
answer, sent a trusty servant after Ciommo to watch and observe where
he drove the geese. Then the man followed in his foot