‘Fell them I will not; they are of exquisite beauty.’
‘If you don’t, I shall die.’
The emperor set men to work, and felled the firs, and gathered all the chips, and burned them with fire. He made a bed of the two planks, and slept with his new empress in the bed.
And the elder boy said, ‘Brother, do you feel it heavy, brother?’
‘No, I don’t feel it heavy, for my father is sleeping on me; but you, do you feel it heavy, brother?’
‘I do, for my stepmother is sleeping on me.’
She heard, she arose in the morning. ‘Emperor, chop up this bed, and put it in the fire, that it be burnt.’
‘Burn it I will not.’
‘But you must put it in the fire, else I shall die.’
The emperor bade them put it in the fire. She bade them block up the chimney, that not a spark should escape. But two sparks escaped, and fell on a couple of lambs: the lambs became golden. She saw, and commanded the servants to kill the lambs. She gave the servants the chitterlings to wash them, and gave the chitterlings numbered. They were washing them in the stream; two of the chitterlings fell into the water. They cut two chitterlings in half, and added them to the number, and came home. From those two chitterlings which fell into the water came two doves; and they turned a somersault,[1] and became boys. And they went to a certain lady. This lady was a widow, and she took the boys in, and brought them up seven years, and clothed them.