Page:Researches respecting the Book of Sindibad and Portuguese Folk-Tales.djvu/95

boys lie went along with them, but the moment they reached the wood whilst the other boys were collecting the sticks and small branches of trees for firewood he went to lie down by the side of a brook and began to eat what he had brought with him. While he was doing so a fish came close to him and began to eat up all the crumbs he let fall, until at last he caught it. The fish entreated him not to kill him, that he would do for him all he could wish for. The lazy boy, who did not trust the fish, said to it, "In the name of my God, and of my fish, I wish that this very moment a faggot of wood larger than any of the ones held by the other boys, shall appear before me, and that the bundle shall proceed without my being seen under it." All at once a faggot made its appearance ready tied; and he then allowed the fish to go back into the sea. He turned to go home, and as he passed the palace, the king, who was at the window with the princess, was very much astonished to see the faggot move along by itself; and the princess was so very much amused at it that she laughed. The lazy boy then said: "In the name of God, and of my fish, let the princess have a son without its being known whose son he is." The princess then began to feel that she was with child, and the king became very displeased with her, and ordered her to be imprisoned in a tower with her maids of honour. After a time she gave birth to a male child. The lazy boy returned to the wood, and the fish again appeared and told him that the princess had given birth to a son. The lazy boy, being instructed by the fish, ordered a palace to be erected which should be more splendid than the one belonging to the king. There was a garden in this palace replete with flowers of every colour and shade, and, wonderful to relate, there was an orchard full of fruit trees in which grew an orange tree with twelve golden oranges. All this was brought about by the fish and the fairies. The lazy boy went to this palace transformed into a prince, and no one knew