Yes! they did that. And when little Annie the goose-girl came and stepped upon the stone, the Prince asked:
“Who is this that steps into my bed.”
“A maid pure and bright”, said the stone; and so they lay down to rest.
Farther on in the night the Prince put a ring on Annie’s finger, and it fitted so tight she couldn’t get it off again; for the Prince saw well enough there was something wrong, and so he wished to have a mark by which he might know the right woman again.
Well, when the Prince had gone off to sleep, the Princess came and drove Annie away to the pigsty, and lay down in her place. Next morning, when they were to get up, the Prince asked:
“Who is this that steps out of my bed?”
“One that’s had nine bairns”, said the stone.
When the Prince heard that he drove her away at once, for he was in an awful rage; and then he asked the stone how it all was with these Princesses who had stepped on it, for he couldn’t understand it at all, he said.
So the stone told him how they had cheated him, and sent little Annie the goose-girl to him in their stead.
But as the Prince wished to have no mistake about it, he went down to her where she sat tending her geese, for he wanted to see if she had the ring too, and he thought, “if she has it, ’twere best to take her at once for my queen”.