Fairy Tales from Many Lands

by Katharine Pyle

The pearls led her almost to the palace door, but there they seemed to end, and she could see no more, and she did not know where to go next, nor what had become of her sister.

She sat down on the step of a house opposite to the palace, where a gardener and his wife lived.

The gardener’s wife was a very charitable woman, and when presently she came to the door and saw the old woman sitting there as though she were too exhausted to go further, she spoke to her kindly and gave her something to eat. She never imagined what a beautiful young princess was inside of that wrinkled old skin.

Balna thanked her gratefully, and after she had eaten, she sat on the step all day, watching everyone that went past and listening to all they said. She hoped in this way to get some news of her sister, but she heard nothing.

That night the gardener’s wife gave her a place to sleep, and after that Balna lived with her and the woman was very kind to her. All day the princess appeared to be an old woman, but at night she went to a tank in the palace gardens, and took off the old skin and bathed herself in the water. After she had bathed she sat on the edge of the tank for awhile, and amused herself by arranging her hair, putting in it one of the blossoms of a beautiful pink lotus that grew there, and about her neck she hung the necklace of pink pearls which she had strung again.

Now it happened that these pink lotus plants were great favorites with the rajah. He often went to the tank to look at them, and he was much annoyed when he found someone was coming there every night and breaking off a blossom each time. He had another and younger son, beside the one who had found the girl in the jungle, and when this young prince found how annoyed the rajah was over the loss of his lotuses he said he would watch in the garden all night and see who the thief was.

So that night he climbed up in a tree that grew beside the tank and hid himself among the leaves. He sat there for a long time and all was still. Then when the moon rose he was surprised to see an old, old woman hobble down to the tank and seat herself upon the edge of it. But he was more amazed when this old woman stripped off her skin as though it were a glove, and appeared as the most beautiful young girl he had ever seen. She sat there dabbling her feet in the water, and presently she broke off a pink lotus and arranged it in her hair, and drew from her bosom a necklace of pearls which she hung about her neck. She sat there for some time, and then she threw away her lotus flower and drew on the old skin and hobbled away in the direction of the gardener’s house.

The young prince followed without her having seen him, and waited until she entered the door and closed it behind her. Then he returned to the palace.

The next morning he went to his father the rajah, and said to him, “I have found who it is who steals your lotus blossoms. It is the old woman who lives with the gardener’s wife, and I wish to marry her.”