After all this mortification, and trouble, and misery, everything came right at last. So the king and his wife, with their golden-haired twins, lived together long and happily. [[150]]

[1] “Gusle,” a one-stringed musical instrument. [↑]

[[Contents]]

THE DREAM OF THE KING’S SON

There was once a king who had three sons. One evening, when the young princes were going to sleep, the king ordered them to take good note of their dreams and come and tell them to him next morning.

So the next day the princes went to their father as soon as they awoke, and the moment the king saw them he asked of the eldest, “Well, what have you dreamt?”

The prince answered, “I dreamt that I should be the heir to your throne.”

And the second said, “And I dreamt that I should be the first subject in the kingdom.”

Then the youngest said, “I dreamt that I was going to wash my hands, and that the princes, my brothers, held the basin, whilst the queen, my mother, held fine towels for me to dry my hands with, and your majesty’s self poured water over them from a golden ewer.”