ONE-EYE, TWO-EYES, AND THREE-EYES
Part Two
Injustice and neglect frequently react upon those guilty of it, and the things we despise at first often prove most valuable.
When Two-Eyes saw her mother kill the goat, she went out into the meadow crying. The old woman stood before her again. She told Two-Eyes to go home, take the goat’s head, bury it before the door, and she would have good luck.
Two-Eyes went home, and that night after the others were asleep she took the goat’s head and buried it as she was told. The next morning there stood before the door a wonderful tree with leaves of silver and fruit of gold. Everybody was very much amazed to see such a tree grow up in one night.
One-Eye tried to gather some of the fruit, but she could not break off a single branch. Then Three-Eyes tried, but she was not any more successful. The mother herself climbed the tree, but could do no better. Then, Two-Eyes climbed the tree and gathered a whole apronful of the fruit. The others were astonished that so ordinary a creature as Two-Eyes could gather the fruit when they could not even break a branch from the tree.
While they were all standing under the tree a prince rode by. The sisters were ashamed of Two-Eyes and quickly hid her under a basket. When the prince came by he admired this beautiful tree. He promised to grant any wish to the one who would give him a branch of this wonderful tree.
One-Eye and Three-Eyes each tried to get a branch of the tree, but in vain. Just then Two-Eyes rolled some apples from under the basket. The prince was astonished, and asked who was under the basket. Two-Eyes crept from under the basket. The prince asked her to break off a branch for him. Two-Eyes reached up and with little trouble broke off a branch and gave it to him. Then Two-Eyes told the prince how she had been treated by her mother and her sisters, and said she wished to be taken away, so that she might be happy.
The prince lifted her upon his horse and rode home with her to his father’s castle. The two sisters could hardly conceal their anger and mortification. They thought, however, that they would still have the wonderful tree, but the next morning the tree had disappeared.