Now their voices resound from the trees as they reply to his question.
"No dream has deceived thee. Thou hast seen the last of the wood-nymphs who adorn this mountain. If thou wilt protect them, so spare the trees of the wood that still stand; they will thank thee."
Dawn broke over the mountains, the voices were silent; they sighed in the morning wind, but the soldier could not understand the tones; at first he was inclined to hold all for a dream, but what he had heard stood so clear in his mind that he finally doubted no longer, and zealously defended the three trees.
On his dying bed he commended them to his sons, and charged them never to sell the land.
Long the fields near the three trees thrived above all others, and at night three maiden forms could be seen following the plough in the moonlight.
But alas! the trees and land came into the hands of an owner who held the story of the three wood-fairies for a fable, and he cut the trees down.
Since then the mountain has been barren and fruitless, and the three sisters have never been seen with the plough again.
The Shepherds' Towers.
Two shepherds in Quedlinburg, father and son, poor but honest people, were once watching their flocks on the green meadows.