' exclaimed the other
two. And they flapped their wings and clucked so loud with delight, and
made such a noise, that they woke up all the birds in the trees close
by.

'What in the world is the matter?' asked the birds sleepily.

'That is our secret,' said the doves.

Meanwhile the girl had reached home crosser than ever; but as soon as
her mother heard her lift the latch of the door she ran out to hear her
adventures. 'Well, did you get the wreath?' cried she.

'Dirty creatures!' answered her daughter.

'Don't speak to me like that! What do you mean?' asked the mother again.

'Dirty creatures!' repeated the daughter, and nothing else could she
say.

Then the woman saw that something evil had befallen her, and turned in
her rage to her stepdaughter.

'You are at the bottom of this, I know,' she cried; and as the father
was out of the way she took a stick and beat the girl till she screamed
with pain and went to bed sobbing.

If the poor girl's life had been miserable before, it was ten times
worse now, for the moment her father's back was turned the others teased
and tormented her from morning till night; and their fury was increased
by the sight of her wreath, which the doves had placed again on her
head.

Things went on like this for some weeks, when, one day, as the king's
son was riding through the forest, he heard some strange birds singing
more sweetly than birds had ever sung before. He tied his horse to a
tree, and followed where the sound led him, and, to his surprise, he
saw before him a beautiful girl chopping wood, with a wreath of pink
rose-buds, out of which the singing came. Standing in the shelter of a
tree, he watched her a long while, and then, hat in hand, he went up and
spoke to her.

'Fair maiden, who are you, and who gave you that wreath of singing
roses?' asked he, for the birds were so tiny that till you looked
closely you never saw them.

'I live in a hut on the edge of the forest,' she answered, blushing, for
she had never spoken to a prince before. 'As to the wreath, I know not
how it came there, unless it may be the gift of some doves whom I fed
when they were starving! The prince was delighted with this answer,
which showed the goodness of the girl's heart, and besides he had fallen
in love with her beauty, and would not be content till she promised to
return with him to the palace, and become his bride. The old king was
naturally disappointed at his son's choice of a wife,