Kate Crackernuts

" So Kate rolled a few nuts she had gathered to the fairy baby, who left the basket of barley behind to chase after them. Then she reached into the basket and put a handful of barley into her apron.

At cockcrow they set off again, but instead of cracking her nuts as she had done before, this time Kate boiled the barley and made a pot of barley soup. Soon there arose a very savory smell.

"Oh!" said the sick prince, "I wish I had a sip of that barley soup." So Kate gave him a spoonful of the soup, and he rose up on his elbow. By and by he cried out again, "Oh, if only I had but another sip of that soup!" So Kate gave him another spoonful, and he sat up on his bed. Then he said again, "Oh! for but a third spoonful of it!" So Kate gave him a third spoonful, and he rose hale and strong, completely cured. Then the prince dressed himself, and sat down by the fire.

When the castle servants came into the prince's room the next morning, they were astonished to find the prince sitting beside Kate, and the two of them chatting away and happily cracking nuts by the fire. Meanwhile the prince's brother had met Anne in the castle byways and he had fallen in love with her, as nearly everybody did. Soon it was agreed that the two of them, too, should be married. And so the two princesses married the two princes, and all of them lived happily ever after.