at the King was travelling
through the land, and in the town near by was to give a great ball, to
all the lords and ladies of the country, when the Prince, his only son,
was to choose a wife.

One of the royal invitations was brought to the Palace by the sea, and
the servants carried it up to the old lord who still sat by his window,
wrapped in his long white hair and weeping into the little river that
was fed by his tears.

But when he heard the King's command, he dried his eyes and bade them
bring shears to cut him loose, for his hair had bound him a fast
prisoner and he could not move. And then he sent them for rich clothes,
and jewels, which he put on; and he ordered them to saddle the white
horse, with gold and silk, that he might ride to meet the King.

Meanwhile Tattercoats had heard of the great doings in the town, and she
sat by the kitchen-door weeping because she could not go to see them.
And when the old nurse heard her crying she went to the Lord of the
Palace, and begged him to take his granddaughter with him to the King's
ball.

But he only frowned and told her to be silent, while the servants
laughed and said: "Tattercoats is happy in her rags, playing with the
gooseherd, let her be--it is all she is fit for."

A second, and then a third time, the old nurse begged him to let the
girl go with him, but she was answered only by black looks and fierce
words, till she was driven from the room by the jeering servants, with
blows and mocking words.

Weeping over her ill-success, the old nurse went to look for
Tattercoats; but the girl had been turned from the door by the cook, and
had run away to tell her friend the gooseherd, how unhappy she was
because she could not go to the King's ball.

But when the gooseherd had listened to her story, he bade her cheer up,
and proposed that they should go together into the town to see the King,
and all the fine things; and when she looked sorrowfully down at her
rags and bare feet, he played a note or two upon his pipe, so gay and
merry, that she forgot all about her tears and her troubles, and before
she well knew, the herdboy had taken her by the hand, and she, and he,
and the geese before them, were dancing down the road towards the town.

Before they had gone very far, a handsome young man, splendidly dressed,
rode up and stopped to ask the way to the castle where the King was
staying; and when he found that they too were going thither, he got off
his horse