Atondido Stories
When day broke the child began to cry and the charcoal-
burner woke up. Then he saw that his wife had died during the
night.
“Ah, my poor motherless child,” he cried, “what shall I do
with you now?”
“Give me the baby,” the king said. “I’ll see that he’s looked
after properly and I’ll give you enough money to keep you the
rest of your life.”
The charcoal-burner was delighted with this offer and the
king went away promising to send at once for the baby.
A few days later when he reached his palace he was met with
the joyful news that a beautiful little baby daughter had been
born to him. He asked the time of her birth, and of course it was
on the very night when he saw the Fates. Instead of being
pleased at the safe arrival of the baby princess, the king frowned.
Then he called one of his stewards and said to him: “Go into the
forest in a direction that I shall tell you. You will find there a
cottage where a charcoal-burner lives. Give him this money and
get from him a little child. Take the child and on your way back
drown it. Do as I say or I shall have you drowned.”
The steward went, found the charcoal-burner, and took the
child. He put it into a basket and carried it away. As he was
crossing a broad river he dropped the basket into the water.
“Goodnight to you, little son-in-law that nobody wanted!” the
king said when he heard what the steward had done.
He supposed of course that the baby was drowned. But it
wasn’t. Its little basket floated in the water like a cradle, and the
baby slept as if the river were singing it a lullaby. It floated
down with the current past a fisherman’s cottage. The fisherman
saw it, got into his boat, and went after it. When he found what
the basket contained he was overjoyed. At once he carried the
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