your head will be the
forfeit.'

So the youth remained quietly in the castle, eating and looking at all
the beautiful things around him, and every now and then pretending to
be searching busily in all the closets and corners. On the eighth day he
entered the room where the king was sitting. 'Take up the floor in this
place,' he said. The king gave a cry, but stopped himself, and asked,
'What do you want the floor up for? There is nothing there.'

But as all his courtiers were watching him he did not like to make any
more objections, and ordered the floor to be taken up, as the young man
desired. The youth then want straight down the staircase till he reached
the door; then he turned and demanded that the key should be brought.
So the king was forced to unlock the door, and the next and the next and
the next, till all seven were open, and they entered into the hall where
the twelve maidens were standing all in a row, so like that none might
tell them apart. But as he looked one of them silently drew a white sash
from her pocket and slipped it round her waist, and the young man sprang
to her and said, 'This is the princess, and I claim her for my wife.'
And the king owned himself beaten, and commanded that the wedding feast
should be held.

After eight days the bridal pair said farewell to the king, and set
sail for the youth's own country, taking with them a whole shipload of
treasures as the princess's dowry. But they did not forget the old woman
who had brought about all their happiness, and they gave her enough
money to make her comfortable to the end of her days.

The Sprig of Rosemary

Cuentos Populars Catalans, per lo Dr. D. Francisco de S. Maspons y
Labros (Barcelona: Libreria de Don Alvar Verdaguer 1885).

Once upon a time there lived a man with one daughter and he made her
work hard all the day. One morning when she had finished everything he
had set her to do, he told her to go out into the woods and get some dry
leaves and sticks to kindle a fire.

The girl went out, and soon collected a large bundle, and then she
plucked at a sprig of sweet-smelling rosemary for herself. But the
harder she pulled the firmer seemed the plant, and at last, determined
not to be beaten, she gave one great tug, and the rosemary remained in
her hands.

Then she heard a voice close to her saying, 'Well?' and turning she saw
before her a handsome young man, who asked why she had come to steal his
firewood.

The gi