Stranica 84 [84]
‘THE ‘TWELVE. BROTHERS:
NCE upon a time there lived a King and
Queen very peacefully together ; they
had twelve children, all boys. Now
the King said to the Queen one day,
“Tf our thirteenth child should be
a girl the twelve boys shall die, so that
her riches may be the greater, and the
kingdom fall to her alone.”
Then he caused twelve coffins to be
made ; and they were filled with shavings, and a little pillow
laid in each, and they were brought and put in a locked-up
room ; and the King gave the key to the Queen, and told her
to say nothing about it to any one.
But the mother sat the whole day sorrowing, so that her
youngest son, who never left her, and to whom she had given
the Bible name Benjamin, said to her,
‘Dear mother, why are you so sad ? "
“ Dearest child,” answered she, " I dare not tell you.”
But he let her have no peace until she went and unlocked
the room, and showed him the twelve coffins with the shavings
and the little pillows. Then she said,
My dear Benjamin, your father has caused these coffins
to be made for you and your eleven brothers, and if I bring a
little girl into the world you are all to be put to death together
and buried therein.” And she wept as she spoke, and her
little son comforted her and said,
“Weep not, dear mother, we will save ourselves and go
far away.” . Then she answered,