a little girl, she will stay
at home awhile with us, but later on she will get married and go away
and leave us. So, whichever it is, we may be left with no child after
all."

However, at last she decided on the white rose, and she ate it. And it
tasted so sweet, that she took and ate the red one too: without ever
remembering the old woman's solemn warning.

Some time after this, the _King_ went away to the wars: and while he
was still away, the _Queen_ became the mother of twins. One was a
lovely baby-boy, and the other was a _Lindworm_, or Serpent. She was
terribly frightened when she saw the _Lindworm_, but he wriggled away
out of the room, and nobody seemed to have seen him but herself: so
that she thought it must have been a dream. The baby _Prince_ was so
beautiful and so healthy, the _Queen_ was full of joy: and likewise,
as you may suppose, was the _King_ when he came home and found his son
and heir. Not a word was said by anyone about the _Lindworm_: only the
_Queen_ thought about it now and then.

Many days and years passed by, and the baby grew up into a handsome
young _Prince_, and it was time that he got married. The _King_ sent
him off to visit foreign kingdoms, in the Royal coach, with six white
horses, to look for a Princess grand enough to be his wife. But at the
very first cross-roads, the way was stopped by an enormous _Lindworm_,
enough to frighten the bravest. He lay in the middle of the road with
a great wide open mouth, and cried, "A bride for me before a bride for
you!" Then the _Prince_ made the coach turn round and try another
road: but it was all no use. For, at the first cross-ways, there lay
the _Lindworm_ again, crying out, "A bride for me before a bride for
you!" So the _Prince_ had to turn back home again to the Castle, and
give up his visits to the foreign kingdoms. And his mother, the
_Queen_, had to confess that what the _Lindworm_ said was true. For he
was really the eldest of her twins: and so he ought to have a wedding
first.

There seemed nothing for it but to find a bride for the _Lindworm_,
if his younger brother, the _Prince_, were to be married at all. So
the _King_ wrote to a distant country, and asked for a Princess to
marry his son (but, of course, he didn't say which son), and presently
a Princess arrived. But she wasn't allowed to see her bridegroom until
he stood by her side in the great hall and was married to her, and
then, of course, it was too late for her to say