e girl had cried out the little boys were afraid
some harm might follow, and prayed that they might be changed into
trees, so that if any one came to search for them they might not find
them.

Their prayers were answered. The twenty little boys were changed into
twenty little banyan trees that stood in a circle, and the little girl
was changed into a rose-bush that stood in the midst of the circle and
was full of red and white roses.

The old Ranee and the nurse and the servants came to the well and
searched under every step, but no one was there, so went away again.

All might now have been well, but the workman's mischievous little
daughter chanced to come by that way again. At once she espied the
banyan trees and the rose-bush. "It is a curious thing that I never
saw these trees before," she thought. "I will gather a bunch of
roses."

She ran past the banyan trees without giving them a thought and began
to break the flowers from the rose-tree. At once a shiver ran through
the tree, and it cried to her in a pitiful voice: "Oh! oh! you are
hurting me. Do not break my branches, I pray of you. I am a little
girl, too, and can suffer just as you might."

The child ran back to her father and caught him by the hand. "Oh, I am
frightened!" she cried. "I went to gather some roses from the
rose-tree, and it spoke to me;" and she told him what the rose-tree
had said.

At once the workman went off and repeated to the Ranee what his little
daughter had told him, and the Queen gave him a piece of gold and sent
him away, bidding him keep what he had heard a secret.

Then she called the wicked nurse to her and repeated the workman's
story. "What had we better do now?" she asked.

"My advice is that you give orders to have all the trees cut down and
burned," said the nurse. "In this way you will rid yourself of the
children altogether."

This advice seemed good to the Ranee. She sent men and had the trees
cut down and thrown in a heap to burn.

But heaven had pity on the children, and just as the men were about to
set fire to the heap a heavy rain storm arose and put out the fire.
Then the river rose over its banks, and swept the little trees down on
its flood, far, far away to a jungle where no one lived. Here they
were washed ashore and at once took on their real shapes again.

The children lived there in the jungle safely for twelve years, and
the brothers grew up tall and straight and handsome, and the sister
was l