he himself took up his position behind the dark
gate, and heard how the goose-girl greeted Falada. Then he followed her
through the field, and hid himself behind a bush on the common. He soon
saw with his own eyes how the goose-boy and the goose-girl looked after
the geese, and how after a time the maiden sat down and loosed her hair,
that glittered like gold, and repeated:

"Wind, wind, gently sway,
Blow Curdken's hat away;
Let him chase o'er field and wold
Till my locks of ruddy gold
Now astray and hanging down,
Be combed and plaited in a crown."

Then a gust of wind came and blew Curdken's hat away, so that he had to
fly over hill and dale after it, and the girl in the meantime quietly
combed and plaited her hair: all this the old King observed, and
returned to the palace without anyone having noticed him. In the evening
when the goose-girl came home he called her aside, and asked her why she
behaved as she did. "I may not tell you why; how dare I confide my woes
to anyone? for I swore not to by heaven, otherwise I should have lost my
life." The old King begged her to tell him all, and left her no peace,
but he could get nothing out of her. At last he said: "Well, if you
won't tell me, confide your trouble to the iron stove there," and he
went away. Then she crept to the stove, and began to sob and cry and to
pour out her poor little heart, and said: "Here I sit, deserted by all
the world, I who am a king's daughter, and a false waiting-maid has
forced me to take off my own clothes, and has taken my place with my
bridegroom, while I have to fulfill the lowly office of goose-girl.

"If my mother only knew
Her heart would surely break in two."

But the old King stood outside at the stove chimney, and listened to her
words. Then he entered the room again, and bidding her leave the stove,
he ordered royal apparel to be put on her, in which she looked amazingly
lovely. Then he summoned his son, and revealed to him that he had got
the false bride, who was nothing but a waiting-maid, while the real one,
in the guise of the ex-goose-girl, was standing at his side. The young
King rejoiced from his heart when he saw her beauty and learned how good
she was, and a great banquet was prepared, to which everyone was bidden.
The bridegroom sat at the head of the table, the Princess on one side of
him and the waiting-maid on the other; but she was so dazzled that she
did not recognize the Princess in her glit