Yet a third child was born to the Princess, a little girl, which the two sisters changed for a rat. As before, they placed the child in a box and threw it into the river; and yet a third time did the gardener rescue the babe, and take it to grow up with its two brothers, his adopted boys.
By this time the Prince was very angry with his wife, and turned her out of his house.
The gardener and his wife, who had loved their adopted children very dearly, died when the boys were about eight or nine years of age.
So the boys begged the Prince to give them land of their own, on which to build or cultivate; and he, remembering how fond his gardener had always been of them, granted their request, so they lived there very happily with their little sister.
The brothers often went out hunting, and on one occasion, when they were out and their sister alone at home, a very old woman came to her and begged for some water. She willingly gave it, and then asked the old woman very kindly if she would not come in and rest. “Come and see my house,” she said, “and tell me what you think of it.”
The old woman said: “You have everything very nice, but there are three things which you have not got.”
“And what are those?”
“You have no bird, no music, and no stream of water,” replied the old woman; “without these your house is nothing.”
“You must go to the West.”