g:

'Hop, little cricket, to Ratibor, and chirp in his ear that I love
him only, but that I am held captive by the gnome in his palace under
the mountains.'

So the cricket hopped off gaily, determined to do his best to deliver
his message; but, alas! a long-legged stork who was prancing along the
same road caught him in her cruel beak, and before he could say a word
he had disappeared down her throat.

These two unlucky ventures did not prevent the princess from trying
once more.

This time she changed the turnip into a magpie.

'Flutter from tree to tree, chattering bird,' said she, 'till you come
to Ratibor, my love. Tell him that I am a captive, and bid him come
with horses and men, the third day from this, to the hill that rises
from the Thorny Valley.'

The magpie listened, hopped awhile from branch to branch, and then
darted away, the princess watching him anxiously as far as she could
see.

Now Prince Ratibor was still spending his life in wandering about the
woods, and not even the beauty of the spring could soothe his grief.

One day, as he sat in the shade of an oak tree, dreaming of his lost
princess, and sometimes crying her name aloud, he seemed to hear
another voice reply to his, and, starting up, he gazed around him, but
he could see no one, and he had just made up his mind that he must be
mistaken, when the same voice called again, and, looking up sharply,
he saw a magpie which hopped to and fro among the twigs. Then Ratibor
heard with surprise that the bird was indeed calling him by name.

'Poor chatterpie,' said he; 'who taught you to say that name, which
belongs to an unlucky mortal who wishes the earth would open and
swallow up him and his memory for ever?'

Thereupon he caught up a great stone, and would have hurled it at the
magpie, if it had not at that moment uttered the name of the princess.

This was so unexpected that the prince's arm fell helplessly to his
side at the sound, and he stood motionless.

But the magpie in the tree, who, like all the rest of his family, was
not happy unless he could be for ever chattering, began to repeat the
message the princess had taught him; and as soon as he understood it,
Prince Ratibor's heart was filled with joy. All his gloom and misery
vanished in a moment, and he anxiously questioned the welcome
messenger as to the fate of the princess.

But the magpie knew no more than the lesson he had learnt, so he soon
fluttered away; while the pri