Think of the joy of the father, and his sorrow at the same time, when he saw how wisely this young son had always behaved, and how wicked his two brothers had been. As he had well earned her, he was married to the young lady whom he had brought away with him, and they lived happily and joyfully. The father sent the two brothers into the desert to do penance. If they had lived well, they would have died well.
The Sister and her Seven Brothers.
There was a man and a woman very poor, and over-burdened with children. They had seven boys. When they had grown up a little, they said to their mother that it would be better that they should go on their own way—that they would get on better like that. The mother let them go with great regret. After their departure she gave birth to a little girl, and when this little girl was grown up a little she went one day to a neighbor’s to amuse herself, and having played some childish trick the neighbor said to her:
“You will be a good one, you too, as your brothers have been.”[93]
The child goes home and says to her mother, “Mother, have I some brothers?”[93]
The mother says, “Yes.”
“Where are they?”
“Oh, gone off somewhere.”
The daughter said to her, “I must go too, then. Give me a piece of linen enough to make seven shirts.”
And she would go off at once. The mother was very sorry for it, having already seven children away from home, and the only one she had wished to go away. She let her go then.