THE GOLDEN MAIDEN.
Once upon a time there was a wicked widow who had an ugly daughter. She married a second husband who had a beautiful daughter and a son by his first wife. The step-mother hated the two motherless children, and used every means to persuade her husband to take them away to the mountains and abandon them as a prey to wild beasts. The poor man loved his children, but being frail was unable to resist the frequent importunities and threats of his wife. Therefore one day he put bread in a bag, and taking the two children went to the mountains. After a long journey they came to a lonely wilderness. The man said to the children:
“Sit here and take a little rest,” and then, turning his face away, he began to sob bitterly.
“Father! father, why are you weeping?” exclaimed the children, and they also began to weep.
The man opened the bag and gave them bread, which they soon ate.
“Father,” said the boy, “I am thirsty.”
The man drove his stick into the ground, and placing his cloak over the stick, said:
“Come, children, sit here under the shadow of this cloak; I will go and see if there is a fountain near by.”
The children seated themselves under the cloak, while their father disappeared behind the trees and rocks.