Then the king said, 'What a contemptible comparison! She only loves me
as much as the cheapest and commonest thing that comes to table. This
is as much as to say, she doesn't love me at all. I always thought
it was so. I will never see her again.'
Then he ordered that a wing of the palace should be shut up from
the rest, where she should be served with everything belonging to
her condition in life, but where she should live by herself apart,
and never come near him.
Here she lived, then, all alone. But though her father fancied she
did not care for him, she pined so much at being kept away from him,
that at last she was worn out, [401] and could bear it no longer.
The room that had been given her had no windows on to the street,
that she might not have the amusement of seeing what was going on in
the town, but they looked upon an inner court-yard. Here she sometimes
saw the cook come out and wash vegetables at the fountain.
'Cook! cook!' she called one day, as she saw him pass thus under
the window.
The cook looked up with a good-natured face, which gave her
encouragement.
'Don't you think, cook, I must be very lonely and miserable up here
all alone?'
'Yes, Signorina!' he replied; 'I often think I should like to help you
to get out; but I dare not think of it, the king would be so angry.'
'No, I don't want you to do anything to disobey the king,' answered
the princess; 'but would you really do me a favour, which would make
me very grateful indeed?'
'O! yes, Signorina, anything which I can do without disobeying the
king,' replied the faithful servant.
'Then this is it,' said the princess. 'Will you just oblige me so far
as to cook papa's dinner to-day without any salt in anything? Not the
least grain in anything at all. Let it be as good a dinner as you like,
but no salt in anything. Will you do that?'
'I see!' replied the cook, with a knowing nod. 'Yes, depend on me,
I will do it.'
That day at dinner the king had no salt in the soup, no salt in the
boiled meat, no salt in the roast, no salt in the fried.
'What is the meaning of this?' said the king, as he pushed dish after
dish away from him. 'There is not a single thing I can eat to-day. I
don't know what they have done to everything, but there is not a
single thing that has got the least taste. Let the cook be called.'
So the cook came before him.
'What have you done to the victuals to-day?' said the king,
sternly. 'You have sent up a lot of dishes, and no one alive can tell
one from another. They are all of them exactly alike, and there is
not one of them can be eaten. Speak!'
The cook answered:
'Hearing your Majesty say that salt was the commonest thing that comes
to table, and altogether so worthless and contemptible, I considered
in my mind whether it was a thing that at all deserved to be served
up to the table of the king; and judging that it was not worthy,
I abolished it from the king's kitchen, and dressed all the meats
without it. Barring this, the dishes are the same that are sent every
day to the table of the king.'
Then the king understood the value of salt, and he comprehended how
great was the love of his youngest child for him; so he sent and had
her apartment opened, and called her to him, never to go away any more.