The king built a castle in a distant part of his kingdom, and put his three sons there with teachers and servants to care for them. He married a second wife then; and the two lived on happily till the new wife had a son. The young queen never knew that the king had other children than her son, or that there was a queen in the kingdom before her.
On a day when the king was out hunting in the mountains, the queen went to walk near the castle, and as she was passing the cottage of a greedy old henwife, she stumbled and fell.
“May the like of that meet you always!” said the henwife.
“Why do you say that?” asked the queen, who overheard her.
“It is all one to you what I say. It is little you care for me or the like of me. It wasn’t the same with the queen that was here before you. There wasn’t a week that she did not give support to poor people, and she showed kindness to every one always.”
“Had the king a wife before me?” asked the queen.
“He had, indeed; and I could tell enough to keep you thinking for a day and a year, if you would pay me.”
“I will pay you well if you tell all about the queen that was in it before me.”
“If you give me one hundred speckled goats, one hundred sheep, and one hundred cows I will tell you.”
“I will give you all those,” said the queen, “if you tell everything.”