“Yes, yes, I am going to bring you something.”
“Very well then, bring me a flower.”
He goes off, and is busy buying and buying; for one a hat, for the other a beautiful piece of stuff for a dress, and for the first again a shawl; and he was returning home, when in passing before a beautiful castle, he sees a garden quite full of flowers, and he says to himself:
“What! I was going home without a flower for my daughter; here I shall have plenty of them.”
He takes some then, and as soon as he has done so, a voice says to him:
“Who gave you permission to take that flower? As you have three daughters, if you do not bring me one of them before the year be finished, you shall be burnt wherever you are—you, and your whole kingdom.”
The king goes off home. He gives his elder daughters their presents, and her nosegay to the youngest. She thanks her father. After a certain time this king became sad. His eldest daughter said to him:
“What is the matter with you?”
He says to her: “If one of my daughters will not go to such a spot before the end of the year, I shall be burned.”
His eldest daughter answers him, “Be burned if you like; as for me, I shall not go. I have no wish at all to go there. Settle it with the others.”