“Yes, yes,” jeered the servants, “we know that by heart;” and they attempted to drag him away.
“But won’t you look at my pears first, fair princess? The pears that I have brought all this way for the Kaiser? My father will be so sorry.”
The princess was struck with the earnestness with which he spoke, and decided to see the basket herself. The moment she said so the boy walked straight up to her with his krattle, so strong in the truth that he felt no fear of the whole troop of lackeys.
The princess removed the leaves and—there indeed were golden pears, not merely yellow with ripeness, but really gold, each, large as it was, a shining pear of solid gold!
“These are pears fit for a king,” she said, and presented them to her father. The Kaiser was greatly pleased. He ordered the gold fruit to be placed in his cabinet of treasures, and to the boy, as a reward, he promised whatever he should ask.
“All I wish is to find my two brothers, who hold some high office in your Majesty’s court,” said the boy.
“If those who came with pears before are your brothers, as I suspect, they hold office in prison,” said the Kaiser, and commanded that they be brought. As soon as the two were led in, the third ran to them and embraced them. Then the Kaiser bade each tell his story.
“Strong indeed does truth make the tongue to keep its own,” said the Kaiser, using almost the same words the boys had often heard their father speak. And they were truly sorry they had not kept his counsel.
The Kaiser sent for the father and gave him and his sons charge of the king’s gardens. The father brought with him the pear-tree that, by the power of the truth told of it, had made golden fortune for them. And he and his sons had plenty ever after and were well content.
—Folk tale