"Form before him a river, and let him drown himself there for
evermore."
He sees him drown himself there. The mare says to him,
"Now you shall go to such a spot. The king lives there. You will ask
if they want a gardener, and they will tell you 'Yes.' You will stay
there without doing anything, and the work will do itself by itself,
without your doing anything. Every day three beautiful flowers will
come up in this garden. You will carry them to the three daughters of
the king, but you will always give the finest to the youngest." [112]
It was the custom to carry the dinner to the gardener, but it was the
youngest of the daughters who carried it to him. From the first day
the gardener pleased the young lady, and she said to him one day that
he must marry her. The lad said to her that that cannot be, that she
ought not to think of marrying with a person of low birth and who has
nothing, and that she must not dream any such dreams. This young lady
falls ill. The father sends for the doctor, who says, after having
touched her pulse, that she is ill of love; and the doctor goes to
tell it to the king. The father goes to the young lady and tells her
what the physician has said to him--that she is not so very ill. The
daughter says to him:
"In order to cure me you must send and fetch the gardener. Let him
give me some broth and I shall be cured."
The father sends to fetch him directly, has him washed and properly
dressed, and makes him carry the broth. There was among the court an
old, old nurse; she was a witch, and as she knew what the physician
had said, she goes and hides herself in the young lady's bedroom
before the gardener came there, in order to know what the young lady
would say to him. The young lady said to him:
"Yes, and you shall marry me; I will not marry anybody else but you,
whatever you may say."