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There were once a king and queen who had lived happily together for many years. They had twelve children, but it so happened that all these children were boys. One day the king said to the queen, "If our next child should be a girl, all the boys must die, for I should like my daughter to be very rich and to inherit the whole of my kingdom." Hereupon he ordered twelve coffins to be made, and after a little pillow had been placed in each and they had all been filled with shavings, they were locked up in a room in the castle. Then the king gave the key to his wife, and told her on no account to say a word of this matter to anyone.
But the poor mother could do nothing but sit and grieve the whole day long, and seeing her so sorrowful, her youngest boy, whom she had named Benjamin after the little son in the Bible, and who always liked to be near his mother, went to her and said, "Dear mother, why are you so sad?"
"I may not tell you, dearest child," she answered.
