The second also asks him, “You seem very sad, papa; what is the matter with you?”
He told her how he is bound to send one of his daughters to such a place before the end of the year, otherwise he should be burned.
This one too says to him, “Manage your own business as you like, but do not reckon upon me.”
The youngest, after some days, said to him, “What is the matter with you, my father, that you are so sad? Has someone done you some hurt?”
He said to her, “When I went to get your nosegay, a voice said to me, ‘I must have one of your daughters before the year be completed,’[83] and now I do not know what I must do. It told me that I shall be burned.”
This daughter said to him, “My father, do not be troubled about it. I will go.”
And she sets out immediately in a carriage. She arrives at the castle and goes in, and she hears music and sounds of rejoicing everywhere, and yet she did not see anyone. She finds her chocolate ready (in the morning), and her dinner the same. She goes to bed, and still she does not see anyone. The next morning a voice says to her:
“Shut your eyes; I wish to place my head on your knees for a moment.”
“Come, come; I am not afraid.”
There appears then an enormous serpent. Without intending it, the young lady could not help giving a little shudder. An instant after the serpent went away; and the young lady lived very happily, without lacking anything. One day the voice asked her if she did not wish to go home.