Philemon and Baucis dropped upon their knees.
They knew that their guests could be no other than Zeus and Hermes.
Zeus raised his hand and said, “Arise, good people, ask what you will and it shall be yours.”
Philemon and Baucis cried in one voice:
“Grant, oh Zeus, that one of us may not outlive the other, but that both may die in the same instant.”
This had long been the wish in each heart, and the fear of being left alone in the world was the one trouble of their old age.
Zeus smiled and changed their rude hut into a beautiful castle, and granted them many years of happy life.
One morning the people in the valley noticed that the castle had disappeared.
They hurried to the spot and found growing in its place two beautiful trees, an oak and a linden.
No trace of the good couple could be found.