Oldal 323 [323]
THE OUEEN BEE. 263
‘¢ Leave the little creatures alone, I will not suffer them to
be stifled."
At last the three brothers came to a castle where there
were in the stables many horses standing, all of stone, and the
brothers went through all the rooms until they came to a door
.at the end secured with three locks, and in the middle of the
door a small opening through which they could look into the
room. And they saw a little grey-haired man sitting at a table.
They called out to him once, twice, and he did not hear, but
at the third time he got up, undid the locks, and came out.
Without speaking a word he led them to a table loaded with
all sorts of good things, and when they had eaten and drunk
he showed to each his bed-chamber. The next morning the
little grey man came to the eldest brother, and béckoning him,
brought him to a table of stone, on which were written three
things directing by what means the castle could be delivered
from its enchantment. The first thing was, that in the wood
under the moss lay the pearls belonging to the princess—a
thousand in number—and they were to be sought for and
collected, and if he who should undertake the task had not
finished it by sunset,—if but one pearl were missing,—he must
be turned to stone. So the eldest brother went out, and
searched all day, but at the end of it he had only found one
hundred ; just as was said on the table of stone came to pass
and he was turned into stone. The second brother undertook
the adventure next day, but it fared with him no better than
with the first; he found two hundred pearls, and was turned
into stone.
And so at last it was Witling’s turn, and he began to
search in the moss; but it was a very tedious business to find
the pearls, and he grew so out of heart that he sat down on a
stone and began to weep. As he was sitting thus, up came
the ant-king with five thousand ants, whose lives had been
saved through Witling’s pity, and it was not very long before
the little insects had collected all the pearls and put them ina
heap.
Now the second thing ordered by the table of stone was to
get the key of the princess’s sleeping-chamber out of the lake.
And when Witling came to the lake, the ducks whose
lives he had saved came swimming, and dived below, and