‘Then I suppose I shall be safe with you?’
‘Quite safe, if you like to come; only just help me to drive the cows.’ And the old man called to his animals who were browsing in the grass at the wayside, and they trudged quietly on till they came to a gate in the hedge. This they waited for the old man to open for them, and then went through the meadow until they came to a little farmhouse half hidden by trees.
‘This is my house,’ the King said. ‘Just wait a moment till I have put the cows in the byre, and then I’ll come back and let you in; for you see my wife’s away at the market, and there’s no one else at home.’
So the Princess stopped where she was, and the old man went whistling round to the back of the house driving his cows before him.
It was a very small house, with the thatched roof coming so low down that you could touch it almost with your hand, and the windows were quite overshadowed by it. Over a little arbour of trellis-work before the door ran a rose-tree of deep red flowers, and the roses were full of bees that came from the hives arranged on benches under the eaves, and a few chickens were asleep on one leg under the porch.
In two or three minutes the door opened, and the old man appeared, and the chickens walked lazily away.
‘I entered by a back door,’ he explained. ‘Come in and make yourself at home.’
The inside of the house was just as small and homely as the outside, and the rooms were refreshingly shady and cool after the hot sunlight without.
‘Sit down,’ said the old man, pointing to an arm-chair; and the Princess did as she was told.