s. The
sea serpent asked her to promise three times to make sure. When
Dionysia had promised three times and again embraced her old playmate
and thanked her for all that she had done she sailed away in the
little ship. The sea serpent disappeared into the sea.

Dionysia sailed and sailed in the little ship and at last it bore her
to a lovely island. She thought that she had reached her destination,
so she stepped out of the boat not forgetting to take her box of
dresses with her. As soon as she was out of the boat it sailed away.
"Now what shall I ever do?" said Dionysia. "The ship has gone away and
left me and how shall I ever earn my living? I have never done
anything useful in all my life."

Dionysia surely had to do something to earn her living immediately, so
she at once set out to see what she could find to do. She went from
house to house asking for food and work. At last she came to the royal
palace. Here at the royal palace they told her that they had great
need of a maid to take care of the hens. Dionysia thought that this
was something which she could do, so she accepted the position at
once. It was, of course, very different work from being a princess in
a royal palace but it provided her with food and shelter, and when
Dionysia thought of having to marry the old king she was never sorry
that she had left home.

Time passed and at last there was a great feast day celebrated in the
city. Everybody in the palace went except the little maid who minded
the hens. After everybody had gone away Dionysia decided that she
would go to the _festa_ too. She combed her hair and put on her gown
which was the colour of the fields and all their flowers. In this
wonderful gown she was sure nobody would ever guess that she was the
little maid who had been left at home to mind the hens. She did want
to go to the _festa_! She hurried there as fast as she could and
arrived just in time for the dances.

Everybody at the _festa_ noticed the beautiful maiden in her gown the
colour of the fields and all their flowers. The prince fell madly in
love with her. Nobody had ever seen her before and nobody could find
out who the beautiful stranger was or where she came from. Before the
_festa_ was over Dionysia slipped away, and, when the rest of the
royal household returned home there was the little maid minding the
hens just as they had left her.

The second day of the _festa_ everybody went early except the little
maid who looked