The Princess Who Lost Her Rings

The two old women stopped beside the fire, too.

"What do you suppose is cooking in this kettle?" asked one of the old women.

"It smells so good I'm going to taste and see," said the other.

She started to taste, but as she was about to stick in her finger she heard a strange deep voice which seemed to come out of the little thatched house.

"Do not touch. It is not yours," is what the voice said.

The two old women went up to the door of the house and one of them peeped through the keyhole.

Inside the house she saw a pretty white rabbit playing with a box full of rings. Suddenly the white rabbit pulled off his skin and changed into a handsome prince.

"What wouldn't I give to see the owner of these rings!" cried the prince.

The two lame old women hurried away from the little house in the forest. They were frightened at the queer doings there.

"I know a story to tell the princess!" cried one of the old women when she had recovered from her fright. "I'll tell her how I peeped through the keyhole and saw the rabbit change his skin."

"I know what I'll tell the princess," said the other old woman. "I'll tell her how I followed the donkey without any feet and what that strange voice said to me when I tried to taste the good-smelling broth in the kettle."

"We must keep saying over our stories so we won't forget them," said the first old woman.

"We must hurry on our way to the royal palace and get there while we remember them," said the other.

The two old women hurried on their way to the palace as fast as their lame old legs could carry them. They rehearsed their stories over and over along the way so they would not forget them.

Many storytellers had told their tales to the princess. They were jolly tales, too, but the princess was not in the least cheered by them. She remembered her lost rings even when she was listening to the stories.

"If the storytellers cannot make the princess happy, who can?" asked the king in despair.

"I'm sure I don't know," replied the queen.