When the three servants came to the forest, nothing was there but a rose-tree and one rose on it; the children were nowhere. Said they, “There is nothing to be done here,” and they went home and told the cook that they had seen nothing in the forest but a little rose-bush with one rose on it.
Then the old cook scolded and said, “You simpletons, you should have cut the rose-bush in two, and have broken off the rose and brought it home with you. Go, and do it at once.”
They had therefore to go out and look for the second time. The children, however, saw them coming from a distance.
Then Lina said, “Bird-Found, never leave me, and I will never leave you.”
Bird-Found said, “Neither now, nor ever.”
Said Lina, “Then do you become a church, and I’ll be the chandelier in it.”
So when the three servants came, nothing was there but a church, with a chandelier in it. They said therefore to each other, “What can we do here? Let us go home.” When they got home, the cook asked if they had not found them. They said no, they had found nothing but a church, and that there was a chandelier in it.
The cook scolded them and said, “You fools! Why did you not pull the church to pieces, and bring the chandelier home with you?”
And now the old cook herself got on her legs, and went, with the three servants, in pursuit of the children. The children saw from afar that the three servants were coming, and the cook waddling after them.
Then said Lina, “Bird-Found, never leave me, and I will never leave you.”