ad
delivered the rest to the Clever Girl and told his message she gave
this reply to be brought back to the King:

"It is only half-moon and the 15th of the month and the rooster has
flown away to the mill; but spare the pheasant for the sake of the
partridge."

And when the servant had brought back this message to the King, he
cried out,

"You have eaten half the cake and fifteen of the biscuits and didn't
hand over the capon at all."

Then the servant confessed that this was all true, and the King said,

"I would have punished you severely but that this Clever Girl begs me
to forgive the pheasant, by which she meant you, for the sake of the
partridge, by which she meant herself. So you may go unpunished."

The King was so delighted with the cleverness of the girl that he
determined to marry her. But, wishing to test her once more before
doing so, he sent her a message that she should come to him clothed,
yet unclothed, neither walking, nor driving, nor riding, neither in
shadow nor in sun, and with a gift which is no gift.

When the farmer's daughter received this message she went near the
King's palace, and having undressed herself wrapped herself up in her
long hair, and then had herself placed in a net which was attached to
the tail of a horse. With one hand she held a sieve over her head to
shield herself from the sun; and in the other she held a platter
covered with another platter.

Thus she came to the King neither clothed nor unclothed, neither
walking, nor riding, nor driving, neither in sun nor in shadow.

Now when she was released from the net and a mantle had been placed
over her she handed the platter to the King, who took the top platter
off, whereupon a little bird that had been between the two platters
flew away. This was the gift that was no gift.

The King was so delighted at the way in which the farmer's daughter
had solved the riddle that he immediately married her and made her his
Queen. And they lived very happily together though no children came to
them. The King depended upon her for advice in all his affairs and
would often have her seated by him when he was giving judgment in law
matters.

Now it happened that one day at the end of all the other cases there
came two peasants, each of whom claimed a foal that had been born in a
stable where they had both left their carts, one with a horse and the
other with a mare. The King was tired with the day's pleadings, and
without thinkin