“Ah, Princess, that thou shouldst pass here!
If thy mother knew thy fate,
Then her heart would surely break!”
The little goose-herd stared and wondered to hear this talk between the goose-girl and the horse’s head, but he said nothing. He and the Princess went on out to the meadows driving the geese before them, and when they were far off in the meadows where no one could see, the Princess sat down and unbound her golden hair, so that it fell all about her in a shower, and began to comb it.
Conrad had never seen anything so beautiful in all his life before, for her hair shone and glittered in the sunshine until it was enough to dazzle one. He longed to have just one thread of it to keep, so he crept up behind the Princess, meaning to steal one. But the Princess knew what he was about. Just as he reached out his hand she sang:
“Blow, wind, blow!
Blow Conrad’s hat away.
It is rolling! Do not stay
Till I have combed my hair
And tied it up again.”