"How is it with you?" he asked. "What do you say to marrying the royal meatcook?"
"I'll be most happy to marry him, your majesty," she answered.
The youngest girl was blushing like a rose and her heart was thumping so that she could scarcely breathe. The king smiled as he noticed her fair head bowed upon her breast.
"Would you like to marry the listening king?" he asked her gently.
"Yes, your majesty," she responded, so low that the king could hardly hear her.
"Very well," said the king. "I'll have all these weddings celebrated at once."
Thus it happened that the two eldest sisters got their wishes and married the royal baker and the royal meatcook, while the youngest one wedded the listening king himself. The others were very angry at her luck and their hearts were filled with envy.
"Why didn't we wish to be queens or at least princesses?" one asked the other. "It would have been just as easy to have had our wishes granted!"
"Why didn't we! Why didn't we! How stupid we were!" cried the other.
They passed the time in plotting against their youngest sister, the queen.