The Magic Tree Trunks

As she sat with her face hidden and her body shaking by sobs, Sigurd, hidden inside his tree trunk, heard her crying.

"Sophie, my sister," he called out softly, "Lineik is weeping, help her."

"What?" answered Sophie from inside her tree trunk. "Have you forgotten the wrongs her mother did to us and that owing to her and her mother, we were banished first from the castle, and then from our home?"

But she was not really so unforgiving, and very soon Sophie slid quietly out of the tree trunk. Taking the silk from Lineik's hands, Sophie began to weave it. So quick and clever was she that the blue dress was not only woven but embroidered, too, and Sophie was safe back inside her tree trunk before the prince returned.

"Why, this is the most beautiful work I have ever seen," said he. "And I'm sure that the red one will be still better, because the fabric is richer." With a low bow he left the room.

Lineik had secretly hoped that when the prince had seen the blue dress finished he would have released her from having to weave the other two; but when she found she was expected to weave yet another dress, her heart sank and she began to cry loudly. Again Sigurd heard her cries and begged Sophie to come to her help. Sophie, feeling sorry for her distress, wove and embroidered the second dress as she had done the first, mixing gold thread and precious stones till you could hardly see the red of the dress anymore. When it was done she glided into her tree just moments before the prince stepped into the room.

"You are as quick as you are clever," said he, admiring the lovely dress. "This dress looks as if it had been embroidered by the fairies! But as the green robe must outshine the other two, I will give you three days in which to finish it. After it is ready, the two of us will be married at once."

Lineik groaned. She remembered all the unkind things that she and her mother had done, and she had done nothing when her mother had forced Sophie and her brother to move out the castle.