you the only thing that
will cure me----a cake made by the hand of "Donkey Skin."'

'Donkey Skin?' exclaimed the queen, who thought her son had gone mad;
'and who or what is that?'

'Madam,' answered one of the attendants present, who had been with
the prince at the farm, '"Donkey Skin" is, next to the wolf, the most
disgusting creature on the face of the earth. She is a girl who wears a
black, greasy skin, and lives at your farmer's as hen-wife.'

'Never mind,' said the queen; 'my son seems to have eaten some of her
pastry. It is the whim of a sick man, no doubt; but send at once and let
her bake a cake.'

The attendant bowed and ordered a page to ride with the message.

Now it is by no means certain that 'Donkey Skin' had not caught a
glimpse of the prince, either when his eyes looked through the keyhole,
or else from her little window, which was over the road. But whether she
had actually seen him or only heard him spoken of, directly she received
the queen's command, she flung off the dirty skin, washed herself from
head to foot, and put on a skirt and bodice of shining silver. Then,
locking herself into her room, she took the richest cream, the finest
flour, and the freshest eggs on the farm, and set about making her cake.

As she was stirring the mixture in the saucepan a ring that she
sometimes wore in secret slipped from her finger and fell into the
dough. Perhaps 'Donkey Skin' saw it, or perhaps she did not; but, any
way, she went on stirring, and soon the cake was ready to be put in the
oven. When it was nice and brown she took off her dress and put on her
dirty skin, and gave the cake to the page, asking at the same time for
news of the prince. But the page turned his head aside, and would not
even condescend to answer.

The page rode like the wind, and as soon as he arrived at the palace
he snatched up a silver tray and hastened to present the cake to the
prince. The sick man began to eat it so fast that the doctors thought he
would choke; and, indeed, he very nearly did, for the ring was in one
of the bits which he broke off, though he managed to extract it from his
mouth without anyone seeing him.

The moment the prince was left alone he drew the ring from under his
pillow and kissed it a thousand times. Then he set his mind to find how
he was to see the owner---for even he did not dare to confess that he
had only beheld 'Donkey Skin' through a keyhole, lest they should laugh
at this sudden passio