Atondido Stories
rushed past you out of his stable with me on his back?" Then Ka-
tar told the King the prince was really his son, and told him all
the story of his birth, and of his life up to that moment; and
when the King found the beautiful prince was indeed his son, he
was so glad, so glad. He put his arms round him and kissed him
and cried for joy.
"Now," said the King, "you must come with me to my palace,
and live with me always."
"No," said the prince, "that I cannot do. I cannot go to your
palace. I only came here to fetch my mother; and now that I have
found her, I will take her with me to my father-in-law's palace. I
have married a King's daughter, and we live with her father."
"But now that I have found you, I cannot let you go," said his fa-
ther. You and your wife must come and live with your mother
and me in my palace."
"That we will never do," said the prince, "unless you will kill
your four wicked Queens with your own hand. If you will do
that, we will come and live with you."
So the King killed his Queens, and then he and his wife, the
gardener's daughter, and the prince and his wife, all went to live
in the King's palace, and lived there happily together for ever af-
ter; and the King thanked God for giving him such a beautiful
son, and for ridding him of his four wicked wives.
Katar did not return to the fairies' country, but stayed always
with the young prince, and never left him.
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