All the time while he had been away, the trees had been standing with dried and faded tops; now when he appeared again, they revived and began to blossom. He entered the large room. Around the table there were sitting all the many kings and princes that had come to woo the princess, feasting. When one of them put the wine-glass to his lips, the soldier hit upon the glass and broke it. All the guests were surprised, but the beautiful princess guessed the meaning of it immediately.
"My husband must have come back," thought she. She looked through the window into the garden. There all the trees were alive again, and covered with blossoms. So she gave to her guests a riddle to solve: "I had a wonderful hand-made casket with a golden key to it. I had lost my key and had never expected to find it; and suddenly the key has found itself. Whoever shall guess the riddle shall be my husband."
All the kings and princes tried in vain to solve it. Then the princess said, "Come out and show yourself, my beloved!"
The soldier took off his invisible cap, took the white hands of the princess, and kissed her sweet lips.
"Here is the key to my riddle," said the fair princess. "The casket is myself, and the golden key is my faithful husband."
All the wooers had to go home with nothing, and the princess and the soldier lived happily ever after.
"IT IS QUITE TRUE!"
"That is a terrible story!" said a Hen in a quarter of the town where the affair had not happened. "That is a terrible story from a poultry-yard. I dare not sleep alone to-night! It is quite fortunate that there are so many of us on the roost together!" And she told a tale, which made the feathers of the other hens stand on end, and the cock's comb fall down flat. It is quite true!
But we will begin at the beginning; and that took place in a poultry-yard in another part of the town. The sun went down, and the fowls jumped up on their perch to roost. There was a Hen, with white feathers and short legs, who laid eggs regularly and was a respectable hen in every way; as she flew up on to the roost she pecked herself with her beak, and a little feather fell from her.