But perhaps I could manage to take her place . ' So saying , the fox transformed himself into another golden maiden , so like the first that hardly anyone could tell the difference between them . The simpleton took her straight to the owner of the horse , who was enchanted with her . And the young man got back his father 's vine and married the real golden maiden into the bargain . -LSB- Contes Populaires Slaves . Traduits par Louis Léger . Paris : Ernest Leroux , éditeur . -RSB- THE UNLOOKED-FOR PRINCE -LRB- POLISH STORY -RRB- A long time ago there lived a king and queen who had no children , although they both wished very much for a little son . They tried not to let each other see how unhappy they were , and pretended to take pleasure in hunting and hawking and all sorts of other sports ; but at length the king could bear it no longer , and declared that he must go and visit the furthest corners of his kingdom , and that it would be many months before he should return to his capital . By that time he hoped he would have so many things to think about that he would have forgotten to trouble about the little son who never came . The country the king reigned over was very large , and full of high , stony mountains and sandy deserts , so that it was not at all easy to go from one place to another . One day the king had wandered out alone , meaning to go only a little distance , but everything looked so alike he could not make out the path by which he had come . He walked on and on for hours , the sun beating hotly on his head , and his legs trembling under him , and he might have died of thirst if he had not suddenly stumbled on a little well , which looked as if it had been newly dug . On the surface floated a silver cup with a golden handle , but as it bobbed about whenever the king tried to seize it , he was too thirsty to wait any longer and knelt down and drank his fill . When he had finished he began to rise from his knees , but somehow his beard seemed to have stuck fast in the water , and with all his efforts he could not pull it out . After two or three jerks to his head , which only hurt him without doing any good , he called out angrily , ` Let go at once ! Who is holding me ? ' ` It is I , the King Kostieï , ' said a voice from the well , and looking up through the water was a little man with green eyes and a big head . ` You have drunk from my spring , and I shall not let you go until you promise to give me the most precious thing your palace contains , which was not there when you left it . ' Now the only thing that the king much cared for in his palace was the queen herself , and as she was weeping bitterly on a pile of cushions in the great hall when he had ridden away , he knew that Kostieï 's words could not apply to her .
So he cheerfully gave the promise asked for by the ugly little man , and in the twinkling of an eye , man , XXXXX , and cup had disappeared , and the king was left kneeling on the dry sand , wondering if it was all a dream .
beard country efforts head man palace path son spring water