“Well! thou hast won this time, and now thou hast my second command. I shall place my twelve daughters before thee tomorrow; if thou dost not guess which of them is the youngest, thou wilt place thy head beneath the ax.”
“I unable to recognize the youngest princess!” said the prince in his room. “What difficulty can there be in that?”
“This,” answered the princess, flying into the room in the shape of a bee, “that if I don’t help you, you won’t recognize me, for we are all so alike that even our father distinguishes us only by our dress.”
“What am I to do?”
“What, indeed! That will be the youngest over whose right eye you espy a ladycow. Only look well. Adieu!”
On the morrow King Bony again summoned Prince Unexpected. The princesses stood in a row side by side, all dressed alike and with eyes cast down. The prince looked and marveled how alike all the princesses were; he went past them once, twice—he did not find the appointed token; the third time he saw a ladycow over the eyebrow of one, and cried out: “This is the youngest princess!”
“How the deuce have you guessed it?” said Bony angrily. “There must be some trickery here. I must deal with your lordship differently. In three hours you will come here again, and will show your cleverness in my presence. I shall light a straw, and you will stitch a pair of boots before it goes out, and if you don’t do it you will perish.”
The prince returned desponding and found the bee already in his apartment. “Why pensive again, prince?”
“How shouldn’t I be pensive, when your father wants me to stitch him a pair of boots, for what sort of cobbler am I?”
“What else will you do?”