Chapter 89 88. The King in the Basket

Once upon a time there was a court lumberjack who had three daughters.One day, the king ordered the lumberjacks to go to another place to do a job, probably to cut down a forest in a far away place. This is a job that takes several years to complete.He couldn't the king say: "I won't go." Because he still had to earn money to support his family, but he was really reluctant to go to such a far place, not to mention leaving his three daughters alone at home. He went home sad. "Children, His Majesty ordered me to complete this work. I have to leave you. I want to ask you to allow me to do one thing."

"What's the matter, Dad?" "Before I leave, I will seal the door so that no one can come in, and you don't want to go outside." "If you want to do it, Dad, we both agree." The lumberjack then asked someone to seal the door of the house and left some money and everything needed for life to the daughters.Then he said: "Take this beautiful big basket and tie a well rope. When a seller passes by on the street, you put the money in the basket and hang it down, so that you can buy what you need." They cried, hugged each other, said goodbye, and the lumberjack was gone.The mason then sealed up the door completely, for there was still a hole through which he could get out.

Because the three girls couldn't go out, they often leaned against the window in boredom and leaned out of the window.When the king saw them, he thought he had never seen such beautiful girls.So he disguised himself as a peddler, went under their window and shouted, "Oh, beautiful gold thread! Oh, beautiful gold thread!" The girls wanted to buy some gold thread for embroidery, so they stopped him. "What would you like, ladies?" he asked. "How much does the gold thread cost?" He replied, "Three ducats." This was a high price, since he was king and had no clear idea of ​​money.But the girls put down a gold coin in the basket and asked him to put the gold thread in the basket.

"Be careful, the gold thread is heavy, can you pull it up?" They said, "Why not, there are three of us!" So he said: "Okay, pull it!" Then he got into the basket. When the three sisters struggled to pull the basket up, they found a man inside and threw him down together with the basket.But the man grabbed hold of the window and said, "Don't! I am the king and know you are alone at home, and I have come to keep you company." The girls hugged each other tightly and said, "Your Majesty, we are just poor girls. How can I ask you to accompany us?"

The king replied, "Don't think so, I didn't come to have fun, I just wanted to spend an hour with you. Because you are beautiful, of course, and kind." He added: "It's a pity that your father is not here !Because I'm giving three great balls from tonight, and it's a pity I can't ask your father to let you go." "You are too kind," said the girls, bowing, "you are too kind." "When your father comes back, I will give several other balls," said the king, "and you will come to them." So he talked pleasantly with the girls for an hour, and then the girls put him in a basket again. Hang down.

The three sisters have been talking about his visit since the King was gone.The little sister said, "What do you think of this? You put me down in a basket tonight." "Put you down? What are you doing?" "Put me down and just wait and see." The two sisters were persuaded and let her down from the window. The girl named Leonetta came to the palace with a basket.The guards were guarding the main entrance, and she slipped in through the kitchen door.At this time, the cooks went to peep at the visitors at the door, and the stove was left unattended.Leonetta began to take the food and stuff it into the basket: roast chicken, roast leg of lamb, macaroni, almond cake; what she couldn't take with her was dusted and watered, and she couldn't take it all. have eaten.Then she fled with a basket of exquisite food.When she got under the window, she whistled to her two sisters, and they pulled her up with the food.

The next day, when they heard: "O beautiful golden threads!" they lowered their baskets and pulled the King up.The king's face was ugly. "What's the matter with you today, Your Majesty?" "Oh my girls, do you know what happened to me last night? When we were seated, the servants went to the kitchen and found all the meals ruined by ashes and water. What a disaster. Nothing could be eaten. The servants all knelt at my feet and said they were innocent, and I believed them. Either I had bad luck, or some traitor wanted to overthrow me. Tonight, for the ball, I have sent guards at Guard everywhere. If I find out who that fellow is, I'll chop him up until the biggest pieces on him are as big as small gravels."

The girls expressed deep sympathy for the king: "Oh, what did you say? Someone did this to you!" Leonetta was the most shocked: "Think about what to do to a good king like you!" How could there be someone who thinks like this?" The king, feeling a little comforted by the great sympathy of the three sisters, departed. That night, Leonetta said to her two sisters: "Quick, quick, let me go!" "Are you mad?" said the two sisters to her. "You will stay at home to-night. What good you did yesterday, will we let you go out again? Haven't you heard from the King?"

They fought back and forth, and finally the two sisters let her go.Leonetta came to the palace with the basket, and this time she went to the wine cellar instead of the kitchen, which was guarded by guards.The best wine in the cellar is hers now.When the basket was full, she uncorked each cask and slipped away. The next day, the three sisters pulled up the king who was sitting in the basket, and the king's face became even more gloomy. "What happened, Your Majesty?" "I can't tell you, my girls, that there was nothing in the kitchen yesterday, but at the height of the ball, when I ordered wine to be brought for the guests, the servants went down to the cellar and found it empty. Knees submerged, all the casks uncorked, still dripping."

"Your Majesty, what did you say!" "Dear girls, this is a dangerous time. There must be a whole set of plots to overthrow me. I will double my guard tonight. If I catch one of these traitors, then there will be more gravel than him. The biggest piece that was dropped was a hundred times bigger!" Leonetta said: "Oh, you are right, Sire! How could they treat such a good man as you!" That night the two sisters were determined not to let Leonetta go out, but she was so noisy that they had to put her in the basket and say, "Well, do as you please. We'll be writing to Papa soon We are not responsible for what you did."

This time, the kitchen and wine cellar were filled with guards.Leonetta slipped into the cloakroom and stuffed everything in her cape, coat, hat with feathers, boots, whatever the basket could hold.She then set the rest on fire and slipped away. Every morning the first thing the three sisters did at home was to hide all the stolen things, so that the king would not see them when he came.That morning too, the sisters had a hard time hiding the clothes they had tried and tried all night, and put on their usual clothes, but Leonetta forgot that she was wearing a pair of stolen silver dancers on her feet. shoe. The king came up sitting in a basket with disheveled hair and sunken eyes. "You know, my girls!" he said, "they even tried to set fire to my palace. Fortunately we found it in time and put out the fire, but the cloakroom was almost burnt down! Now I don't have any more balls, and I can't do anything." Fuck, I even want to take the crown and abdicate." "A spy!" cried Leonetta, "such a good man!" It was time for the three sisters to put the king down.But just as the basket was slowly descending, the king saw the silver dancing shoes on Leonetta's feet, and he recognized them as the stolen shoes in his wardrobe, so he shouted: "Ah, spy!" Reach for the balcony.The sisters let go, and both the king and the basket fell to the ground.They thought the king had been thrown to his death, but he got up and walked away in a terrible state. Back at the palace, the king immediately began to plan revenge.He wrote to tell the logger to come back immediately because he wanted to talk to him.The lumberjack thought that he would stay abroad for many months, but he returned very happily, and when he heard that the king was going to propose to one of his daughters, he was even more ecstatic. "Any one of the three girls, as long as they like me," said the king. The lumberjack went home and mentioned the incident to his daughters. "No, Daddy, I really don't want him to be my husband," said the eldest daughter. The second daughter said, "Me neither, Daddy, because..." Leonetta immediately said: "I would like to have him." The woodcutter returned to the king and said, "Your Majesty, I told my daughters about that, and the elder daughter replied, 'No, I really don't want him.' The second daughter replied, 'Neither did I, Because...' But the third daughter said 'I want him.'” The King thought: So she is the most daring girl, and she caused all the troubles for me.So he said to the woodcutter, "Well, I will marry your third daughter." The wedding will be held for several days, and the bride called many maids to wait on her."Listen," she said to the ladies of the court, "I'm going to play a trick on the king." "What are you going to do, Queen?" "Be quiet, listen to me: I'm going to make a doughnut my size, with boobs made of sugar and honey. Tie strings on her so she can nod and shake her head. I'm going to put it on my bed, see Will the king notice." The maids were busy making a dough for her.Leonetta put it on the bed in the new house and dressed it in its own pajamas and hat. After the wedding comes the banquet and dinner, and then it's bedtime.Leonetta asked to go to bed first.She hid under the bed and manipulated the doughnut on the bed with the string in her hand. The king entered the room, closed the door, and said: "Now, my dear, there are only two of us, and you are at last in my hands, and you remember that you said to me: 'You are a good man, Your Majesty...' so words?" "Yes, I remember." Leonetta said from under the bed, manipulating the face on the bed to nod. "Ah yes, so who ruined my kitchen?" "It's me, Your Majesty." Leonetta said, and the face man on the bed also moved his head and waved his hands. "What a liar! So who ruined my wine cellar?" "It's me, Your Majesty!" "And what about the cloakroom?" "I did it all, Your Majesty!" "You trust me to tolerate such vandalism!" "I don't know, Your Majesty!" As soon as he finished speaking, the king drew his sword and stabbed the face man in the chest, which he thought was his wife, and sprayed him with honey and sugar. "Now I kill you," he shouted, "you did it all!" He tasted honey and sugar on his lips: "How did you make it out of sugar and honey! We could have lived happily ever after together, how much I would love you if you were still alive!" From under the bed, Leonetta said softly in mournful tones: "I... I am dead." "What have I done?" said the king to himself, "my sweet Leonetta, how much I would love you if you were still alive!" "But now, I'm dead..." Leonetta said. "If you die, I might as well die too!" said the king, raising his sword to kill himself. "No, I'm alive! I'm alive!" cried Leonetta, jumping out from under the bed and hugging the king tightly. They kiss and hug each other.From then on, they loved each other and lived a happy life. (Florence area)