The Magic Tree Trunks

Could she hope that Sophie would come to her rescue for a third time? After all, she was marrying the Prince of Greece only because he believed that she was Princess Sophie. And perhaps Sophie, who had not forgotten the past either, might have left Lineik to get on as best she could by herself if Sigurd, her brother, had not begged her to help just one more time. So Sophie again slid out of her tree trunk. To Lineik's great relief, she set herself to work. She wove that shining green silk into a pattern such as no one had ever seen before. But it took a long time and on the third morning, just as she was putting the last stitches into the last flower the prince walked in.

Sophie jumped up quickly, and tried to get past him back inside her tree trunk, but the folds of the silk were wrapped round her, and she would have fallen if the prince of Greece had not caught her in his arms.

"I have thought for some time that all was not quite as it seems around here," said he. "Who are you? And where do you come from?"

Sophie then told him her name and her story. When she had ended, the prince of Greece turned angrily to Lineik. He declared that as punishment for her wicked lies, she deserved to die a shameful death.

But Lineik fell at his feet and begged for mercy. It was her mother's fault, she said. "It was she and not I, who passed me off as Princess Sophie. The only lie I have ever told you was about the dresses and the robe, and do I deserve death for that?"

She was still on her knees when Prince Sigurd stepped out of his tree trunk. He appealed to the Prince of Greece to forgive Lineik, which he did, on the condition that the true Princess Sophie would agree to marry him.

But Princess Sophie shook her head. "Not til my stepmother is stripped of her powers and banished from our land," said she, "for otherwise she will not stop bringing misery upon us all."

Then Lineik told them that her stepmother Blauvor was not her real mother at all but was in fact an ogress who had stolen her from a neighboring palace.