father went away, and the following day the king, accompanied by two
friends, paid a visit to the three girls, who were sitting at supper.
When they saw who was there, Maria said, 'Let us go and get a bottle of
wine from the cellar. I will carry the key, my eldest sister can take
the light, while the other brings the bottle.' But the king replied,
'Oh, do not trouble; we are not thirsty.' 'Very well, we will not
go,' answered the two elder girls; but Maria merely said, 'I shall go,
anyhow.' She left the room, and went to the hall where she put out the
light, and putting down the key and the bottle, ran to the house of a
neighbour, and knocked at the door. 'Who is there so late?' asked the
old woman, thrusting her head out of the window.

'Oh, let me in,' answered Maria. 'I have quarrelled with my eldest
sister, and as I do not want to fight any more, I have come to beg you
to allow me to sleep with you.'

So the old woman opened the door and Maria slept in her house. The king
was very angry at her for playing truant, but when she returned home
the next day, she found the plants of her sisters withered away, because
they had disobeyed their father. Now the window in the room of the
eldest overlooked the gardens of the king, and when she saw how fine and
ripe the medlars were on the trees, she longed to eat some, and begged
Maria to scramble down by a rope and pick her a few, and she would draw
her up again. Maria, who was good-natured, swung herself into the garden
by the rope, and got the medlars, and was just making the rope fast
under her arms so as to be hauled up, when her sister cried: 'Oh, there
are such delicious lemons a little farther on. You might bring me one or
two.' Maria turned round to pluck them, and found herself face to face
with the gardener, who caught hold of her, exclaiming, 'What are you
doing here, you little thief?' 'Don't call me names,' she said, 'or you
will get the worst of it,' giving him as she spoke such a violent push
that he fell panting into the lemon bushes. Then she seized the cord and
clambered up to the window.

The next day the second sister had a fancy for bananas and begged so
hard, that, though Maria had declared she would never do such a thing
again, at last she consented, and went down the rope into the king's
garden. This time she met the king, who said to her, 'Ah, here you are
again, cunning one! Now you shall pay for your misdeeds.'

And he began to cross-question her