or even messages scratched on a
rock, or cut in the bark of a tree, she herself was nowhere to be found.
'If she is not on the earth,' said Souci to himself, 'perhaps she is
hiding somewhere in the air. It is there that I shall find her.' So, by
the help of his thread, he tried to mount upwards, but he could go such
a little way, and hurt himself dreadfully when he tumbled back to earth
again. Still he did not give up, and after many days of efforts and
tumbles he found to his great joy that he could go a little higher and
stay up a little longer than he had done at first, and by-and-bye he
was able to live in the air altogether. But alas! the world of the air
seemed as empty of her as the world below, and Souci was beginning to
despair, and to think that he must go and search the world that lay in
the sea. He was floating sadly along, not paying any heed to where he
was going, when he saw in the distance a beautiful, bright sort of bird
coming towards him. His heart beat fast--he did not know why--and as
they both drew near the voice of the princess exclaimed, 'Behold the
bird without feathers and the bridge without an arch!'

So their first meeting took place in the air, but it was none the less
happy for that; and the fan grew big enough to hold the king as well as
Aveline, who had hastened to give them some good advice. She guided the
fan above the spot where the two armies lay encamped before each other
ready to give battle. The fight was long and bloody, but in the end the
Iron King was obliged to give way and surrender to the princess, who
set him to keep King Souci's sheep, first making him swear a solemn oath
that he would treat them kindly.

Then the marriage took place, in the presence of Girouette, whom
they had the greatest trouble to find, and who was much astonished to
discover how much business had been got through in her absence.

Maiden Bright-eye

From the Danish

Once, upon a time there was a man and his wife who had two children, a
boy and a girl. The wife died, and the man married again. His new
wife had an only daughter, who was both ugly and untidy, whereas her
stepdaughter was a beautiful girl, and was known as Maiden Bright-eye.
Her stepmother was very cruel to her on this account; she had always to
do the hardest work, and got very little to eat, and no attention paid
to her; but to her own daughter she was all that was good. She was
spared from all the hardest of the housework, a