So the damsel rested her head on the shoulder of the negress, who took a needle from her dress and slyly pricked the damsel’s neck. Instantly the orange fairy became a bird, and pr-r-r! she was gone, leaving the negress alone in the tree.
By and by the prince came back with a fine coach. He looked up into the tree and saw the black face. “What has happened to you?” he asked.
“That is a nice question,” she retorted. “Why did you leave me here all day till the hot sun turned me black?”
The changed aspect of his fairy was very disconcerting to the prince, but he helped the black damsel descend from the tree and took her in the coach straight to his father’s palace. Every one was eager to see the fairy he had brought home, and when they saw the negress they were amazed that he could have lost his heart to what was apparently an ordinary black servant maid.
“But she is not what she seems,” declared the prince. “I had to leave her in a tree while I went to get a coach, and she was blackened there by the rays of the sun. She will soon grow white again, and then I will marry her.”
A fine garden adjoined the palace, and one day the orange-bird came to it, lit on a tree, and called down to the gardener.
“What do you want with me?” he asked.
“I wish you would tell me what the sultan’s son is doing,” said the bird.
“He is doing no harm that I know of,” replied the gardener.
“And what is the black damsel doing?” the bird asked.