The miller and his wife were the most surprised people in the whole country
"What beautiful children!" cried the miller.
"Let's keep them!" cried his wife.
"Of course we'll keep them," replied the miller. "The good God himself must have sent them to us in answer to our prayers."
Just then the miller's wife noticed the golden stars upon their foreheads.
"What does this mean?" she asked.
"I don't know," answered her husband as he examined them carefully. "Perhaps it is just a sign that they are truly the gift of God."
The miller and his wife cared for the two children as if they had been their own. They lived such a long distance from the palace that they never heard the news that the royal babes were missing.
As the two boys grew older they became the handsomest, cleverest lads in the whole kingdom. The gold stars shone and twinkled upon their foreheads. At last the miller's wife made little caps for them to wear to hide the stars. They were altogether too conspicuous.
Then one sad summer a pestilence came upon the land and the good miller and his wife died. The two children were left alone in the world. The listening king had decreed all the orphaned children in the kingdom should be brought to the royal city that they might be fed and cared for. The miller's two orphans went with the others, and the king's wicked sister-in-laws saw them. They recognized them at once because of the golden stars upon their foreheads.
"We must make a new plot to destroy the royal children," said one sister to the other. "And we must be quick about it or the king or queen will see them and recognize them, too, by the golden stars."
"Are you quite sure these are the two royal babes we threw into the river?" asked the other sister doubtfully. "It is a bit difficult for me to believe that our sister's children can be so handsome."
"I'm entirely certain of it," assured her sister. "There is no one except the royal babes who could have those golden stars."
While the wicked sisters plotted, the two children had approached the royal gardens. Inside the garden there was a beautiful parrot with feathers of green and gold.
"I'm going to catch that bird," said one of the brothers. "Wait here while I go inside the gates."
He could not catch the parrot and he called his brother to come and help him. Together they succeeded; and, with the beautiful green-and-gold parrot tightly clutched, they tried to slip outside the gate of the royal gardens.
Just as they were almost out, the great gates swiftly closed and caught their garments.
"We're caught! We're caught!" cried the two children. "How can we ever get the gates unfastened!"
At the sound of their cries, the royal gardeners, the courtiers and the listening king himself came to the rescue.
When the king saw the golden stars upon their foreheads he leaned against the nearest tree for support.
"What children are these?" he asked in a voice which shook.
"I never saw them before," replied the head gardener. "I think they are some of the orphan children which the great mercy and clemency of your royal majesty have caused to be rescued from the plague."
"Who are your parents, my children?" asked one of the courtiers.
"We are the children of the good miller and his wife," they replied. "Our kind foster parents are now dead with the plague."
"Where did this miller and his wife find you?" asked the king eagerly.
Then the two children told the story of how the miller had found them in a basket in the river. They knew it well, for it was their favorite story of all the ones which the miller's wife had told them.
The courtiers looked at each other in amazement. Every one had noticed the bright stars shining on the children's brows.
"I believe you are the two dear babes lost from this palace!" cried the king as he took them in his arms.
"Who put them in that basket?" asked the king's counsellors.
"If I knew you may be sure that fitting punishment would be visited upon them!" cried the king.
The beautiful green-and-gold parrot had escaped from the children's arms and had flown back to a tree near the gates of the royal gardens. Suddenly he was heard to speak.
"Go find the king's sisters-in-law," were the words he said.
The king's sisters-in-law were quickly brought into the garden. A look at their guilty faces convinced every one that they were the ones who had placed the royal babes in the basket and had thrown them into the river.
"You shall now receive the punishment which you have so richly deserved!" cried the king as he frowned upon them sternly.
"Where is the good queen?" some one asked.
The queen had been sleeping in her own apartments and had not heard the noise in the garden. When the courtiers brought her there and she saw the two handsome boys with the bright stars shining on their foreheads, she fainted with the joy of it.