to relate his adventures in
the woods. The King's Son is amazed to hear him tell of
imaginary dangers which he has encountered with the
Broom-maker. He learns from the Woodcutter's account,
however, that on the stroke of twelve a King's Son, richly
clad, and bright with gems, will enter by the now closed
gate. He asks the people if the expected monarch might not
come in rags. They laugh at the idea and he is accused of
being a meddler, rogue and thief. The clock strikes twelve.
The crowd rushes toward the gate. An intuition warns the
King's Son who is near. Then, as the gate is opened, the
poor Goose-Girl enters, escorted by her geese. She tells the
King's Son she has come to join him on his throne. But the
crowd jeers at her and scorns her youthful lover and though
the Fiddler storms and rages at their blindness, the two
lovers are driven out with sticks and stones. Only the
Fiddler and the little daughter of the Broom-maker believe
them worthy of the throne.

This was where the curtain went down and I thought it was
the end. Oh, how disappointed I was, and then how happy,
when I knew there was another act.

Winter has come. Since the expulsion of the King's Son and
his sweetheart, the Witch has been burned at the stake for
her supposed betrayal of the people to whom she had promised
a new ruler. The Fiddler, who has been maimed and imprisoned
for defending the outcasts, now lives alone in the Witch's
hut, where he is feeding the doves the Goose-Girl has left
behind. He is disturbed by the arrival of the Woodcutter and
the Broom-maker, with a troop of children who have come to
entreat him to come back to Hellabrunn. He refuses. But when
one of the children begs him to lead them all in search of
the lost King's Son and his bride, he consents. The
Woodcutter and the Broom-maker withdraw into the hut, where
they discover the poisoned pasty which the Witch had baked.

Hardly have the echoes of a song sung by the Fiddler died
away, when the King's Son and the Goose-Girl re-appear,
hungry and thirsting and worn out with wandering. They stop
to rest and the King's Son knocks at the door of the hut to
beg food and shelter. The Woodcutter refuses to give them
anything. To comfort her sweetheart, the Goose-Girl pretends
she i