DANISH FAIRY AND FOLK TALES
band, "who trades in eyes. I will go and see whether she has a pair which may serve this girl."
The next morning the good man went out with a large basket filled with fine apples, which he brought to the old woman, asking her for a pair of eyes. She sat reading in a large book with big red letters, and merely reaching into a tub near her, she produced a pair of eyes, handed them to the gardener, and pointed to the door.
When the gardener reached home the balls were at once placed in the girl's head. But the effect was remarkable: she remained sitting at the same place all the day, and fixed her glance upon a small hole in the wall. When this had been going on for eight days the gardener brought the eyes back to the woman, complaining that they did not at all seem to fit the person who desired to use them, and asking for another pair in exchange.
"No wonder," said the woman. "These are cat's eyes, and the girl has most likely looked at the hole in the wall because she expected a mouse to appear. Here is another pair—beautiful blue eyes, which I found in a ditch a few days ago. Try them."
The girl tried them, and found them to be her own. Now the gardener followed her to the palace, where the princess at once engaged her service. Although Rosamund tried her best to please her, it was very difficult, and the poor girl suffered much from her sullen and whimsical mistress.
One day she was waiting on her when Prince
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