Page:Slavonic Fairy Tales.djvu/231

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THE MAIDEN WHO WAS WISER THAN THE KING.

(from the servian.)

There once lived a poor man in a miserable hovel, who had no one with him save an only daughter. But she was very wise, and went about everywhere seeking alms, and taught her father also to speak in a becoming manner when he begged. It happened once that the poor man came to the king and asked for a gift. The king demanded whence he came, and who had taught him to speak so well. The man said whence he came, and that it was his daughter who had taught him.

"And who taught your daughter?" asked the king.

The poor man answered: "God, and our great poverty."

Then the king gave him thirty eggs, saying,—

"Take these eggs to your daughter, and tell her to hatch chickens out of them, and I will reward her hand-