which I shall impose on you, each day one. Meanwhile, thou must wait until to-morrow.” The next day early, says the king to him: “My Golden Locks had a string of precious pearls; the string snapped, and the pearls were scattered in the long grass upon the green meadow. All these pearls must thou collect, and not a single one must be missing.” George went to this meadow; it extended far and wide; he knelt down in the grass and began to search. “Oh! if my little ants were here, they could help me.” Why, here we are to help thee!” said the ants; where they came, there they came, but around him they just swarmed. “What wantest thou?” “I have to collect pearls on this meadow, and I don’t see a single one.” “Just wait a little bit, we will collect them for thee.” And it was not long before they had brought him out of the grass a small heap of pearls; he had nothing to do but thread them on the string. And after this, when he was just meaning to tie up the string, yet one other little ant hobbled to him; it was crippled, its foot having been burnt when there was the fire at their ant-heap, and it cried out: “Stop, George! don’t tie it up yet, I am bringing just one other little pearl.”
When George brought these pearls to the king, and the king had counted them over, not a single one was missing. “Well hast thou performed thy task,” he says; “to-morrow I will give thee something else to do.” George came early, and the king said to him: “My Golden Locks bathed in the sea and lost there a golden ring; this thou must find and bring.” George went to the sea and walked sadly along the shore; the sea was clear, but so deep that he could not even see to the bottom, and however was he to pick out a ring at the bottom? “Oh! if my golden fish were here, she could help me.” That very instant something flashed in the sea, and from the depths on to the surface floated the golden fish. “Why, here I am to help thee. What needest thou?” “I have to find a golden ring, and I do not even see to the bottom.” “Only just now I met a pike,[1] he wore a gold ring on his fin. Just wait a little bit and I will bring it to you.” And in no long time she returned from the depths of the sea and brought with her the pike, finger-ring and all.
The king applauded George for having so well accomplished his task; and after this, next morning, imposed the third. If thou wouldst have me give my Golden Locks to thy king as a bride, thou
- ↑ Hence we may infer that the black sea of these stories was a fresh water lake.
