Then the girl saw that the bird inside held the plain ring in its beak. She took the ring and ran joyfully out of the house, thinking she would find the dove close at hand waiting for her, but no dove appeared. Anxious and fearful, she leaned against a tree, watching for the coming of the bird. As she stood there it seemed to her that the tree became soft and supple and bent its branches downward. Then two of the branches twined themselves around her, and behold, when she tried to free herself, they were not branches at all, but two strong arms. She looked up, and the tree was gone, and in its stead was a fine handsome man with his arms clasped about her.
“You have released me from the power of the old woman, who is an evil witch,” said he. “She changed me into a tree a long time ago, but every day I became a white dove for a couple of hours. So long as she possessed the ring I could not regain my human form. I am a king’s son, and I came hither accompanied by servants and horses, who were likewise changed into trees. But now you see them around me in their natural forms, and you must come with us to my father’s kingdom.”
When they reached their journey’s end the prince and the maiden married, and they lived happily ever after.
THE THREE WISHES
ONCE upon a time there lived a poor woodman in a great forest, and every morning his wife filled a basket with food and a bottle with drink for his lunch, and, laden with this lunch and his ax, he went off to be gone till evening cutting timber. One day he was about to fell a huge oak which he thought would furnish many a good plank. He had his ax raised for the first blow when he heard a pitiful entreating, and there stood before him a little fairy, who beseeched him to spare the tree.
So dazed was he with wonder that for a while he could not open his mouth to speak a word, but at last he said, “Well, I’ll do as you ask.”
“That tree is my home,” explained the fairy, “and you will not lose as much as you think by letting it stand, for it is hollow at the heart. Besides, to show you that I am not ungrateful, I will grant you and your wife the first three wishes you and she wish after you get home, let them be what they may.”
Then the fairy opened a little door at the base of the tree, which he had not seen before, and disappeared.
“Well,” said the woodman, “if my wife and I can have three wishes, our fortune is as good as made. It is nearly evening, and I may as well go home at once. I shall never need to cut any more trees.”