“If you want to remain beautiful, take this box with you; and don’t
forget to say good-bye to me before you go.”
At the end of the week the prince came with a great train of carriages
and courtiers to fetch his bride, and the girl was so dazzled by the
splendour, and excited at the thought of marrying the prince, that she
forgot to say good-bye to the fairy, and forgot her box till she was
in the carriage. Then she suddenly remembered it, jumped out, and ran
upstairs to the cupboard where she had put it. Now this was a cupboard
in the wall, and the door pushed up as a shutter might do. The girl
raised the door and put her head in to look for the box, when bang!
down came the shutter on her neck.
“Tassa, Tassa,” she shouted.
“What do you want, ugly wench?”
“I forgot to say good-bye to you. And oh, please let me out.”
Then the cupboard door was raised, and the girl went downstairs. But
when she appeared everyone began to laugh, for she had a sheep’s head!
The prince made her get into the carriage, and then pulled down all the
blinds, so that no one might see his ugly bride; and when he got home
he had her put into the sheep stable.
Now there were three beautiful women at the king’s palace who all
wanted to marry the prince, and the prince did not know which to
choose. So he brought some wool and said:—
“The one who spins this best shall be my wife”; and he gave some wool
to the girl with the sheep’s head as well.
The three women set to work immediately and span and span with all
their might; but the poor girl in the stable threw hers into the gutter
and sat down to cry, while the others came and mocked her. At last it
was the eve of the day on which they were to go before the prince, and
the girl sobbed and sobbed, and began to call out “Tassa, Tassa!”
“What do you want, ugly wench?”
“I’ve thrown my wool away, and I don’t know what to do.”
“Take this filbert, and when you come before the prince crack it. But
you don’t deserve to be helped.”
The next day the whole court was assembled and the three women gave
their skeins of wool, and then the prince turned to the girl and said:—
“What have you done?”
“Baa, baa,” said she, and cracked the filbert. There was a skein of the
finest wool that could be imagined, and all said that the sheep had
done best.