"If the storytellers cannot make the princess happy, who can?" asked the king in despair.
"I'm sure I don't know," replied the queen. "She always used to like stories."
Finally the two old women reached the royal palace and went to tell their tales to the princess.
The first old woman told the story of the donkey without any feet and the broth in the kettle. The princess did not appear to be particularly interested even when the old woman told about the strange deep voice which said, "Do not touch. It is not yours." Cold chills, however, ran up and down the spines of the king and queen and all the courtiers when she came to that part of the tale.
Next the other old woman told how she peeped through the keyhole of the little thatched house in the forest and saw the white rabbit change his skin.
The pretty dark eyes of the princess sparkled when the old woman mentioned the rabbit and she leaned forward in her chair eagerly.
"Our dear little princess looks like her own happy self again for the first time in ages," whispered the king to the queen.
When the old woman told of the rabbit's words, "What would I not give to see the owner of these rings!" the princess clapped her hands.
"Take me to see this rabbit at once!" she cried.
The king and queen and all the courtiers went with the princess to find the white rabbit. The two old women went first to point out the way, and as these old women were so lame the whole procession moved very slowly.