Seite 448 von 626

And again the princess was compelled to do servant's work until

cock-crow.

Next morning the king sent his people out to seek the track, but

it was all in vain, for in every street poor children were

sitting, picking up peas, and saying: 'It must have rained peas,

last night.' 'We must think of something else,' said the king;

'keep your shoes on when you go to bed, and before you come back

from the place where you are taken, hide one of them there, I

will soon contrive to find it.' The black manikin heard this

plot, and at night when the soldier again ordered him to bring

the princess, revealed it to him, and told him that he knew of no

expedient to counteract this stratagem, and that if the shoe were

found in the soldier's house it would go badly with him. 'Do what

I bid you,' replied the soldier, and again this third night the

princess was obliged to work like a servant, but before she went

away, she hid her shoe under the bed.