Well, she didn’t give advice to anybody until one day there was a market in the town, and a farmer’s mare had a foal at the market. The foal ran away to another farmer, who was there with a gelding, and the farmer said: “This foal belongs to me.”
They went to law about it, and at last the matter came before the king. And the king, considering that every animal ought to run to its mother, decided that a gelding had had a foal.
The farmer who owned the mare went down the stairs, saying over and over again: “The gelding has foaled! the gelding has foaled!”
The queen heard him, and she said: “Man, you are talking nonsense.”
So he told her that he had been at the market, that his mare had foaled, but the foal ran to another farmer who was there with a gelding. “And now,” he said, “it has been decided that the gelding has foaled.” So he thought there could be no mistake; at any rate, he couldn’t help it.
When the queen heard this story she said: “To-morrow, my lord the king will go out for a stroll. Take a fishing-net, and begin fishing on the road in front of him. The king will ask you: ‘Why are you fishing on a dry road?’ And you must answer: ‘Why not? it’s as hopeful as expecting a gelding to foal.’ But you must not say who gave you this advice.”
So it was. As the king was walking along he saw the farmer fishing on the dry road. He asked him why he was fishing there.
“Why not?” said he, “it’s as hopeful as expecting a gelding to foal.”
The king at once began to rate the farmer. “That’s not out of your own head,” he said, and he kept at the farmer until he let the secret out.
So the king came home, summoned the queen, and said to her: “You have been with me for a long time, and you have given advice in spite of all, so you must go to-morrow. But I will allow you to take with you the thing you like best.”