She took the little girl in her arms , and holding it up before the assembled company announced that henceforward it would be known by the name of Dotterine -- a name which no one understood but the queen , who knew that the baby had come from the yolk of an egg . The boy was called Willem . After the feast was over and the guests were going away , the godmother laid the baby in the cradle , and said to the queen , ` Whenever the baby goes to sleep , be sure you lay the basket beside her , and leave the eggshells in it . As long as you do that , no evil can come to her ; so guard this treasure as the apple of your eye , and teach your daughter to do so likewise . ' Then , kissing the baby three times , she mounted her coach and drove away . The children throve well , and Dotterine 's nurse loved her as if she were the baby 's real mother . Every day the little girl seemed to grow prettier , and people used to say she would soon be as beautiful as her godmother , but no one knew , except the nurse , that at night , when the child slept , a strange and lovely lady bent over her . At length she told the queen what she had seen , but they determined to keep it as a secret between themselves . The twins were by this time nearly two years old , when the queen was taken suddenly ill . All the best doctors in the country were sent for , but it was no use , for there is no cure for death . The queen knew she was dying , and sent for Dotterine and her nurse , who had now become her lady-in-waiting . To her , as her most faithful servant , she gave the lucky basket in charge , and besought her to treasure it carefully . ` When my daughter , ' said the queen , ` is ten years old , you are to hand it over to her , but warn her solemnly that her whole future happiness depends on the way she guards it . About my son , I have no fears . He is the heir of the kingdom , and his father will look after him . ' The lady-in-waiting promised to carry out the queen 's directions , and above all to keep the affair a secret . And that same morning the queen died . After some years the king married again , but he did not love his second wife as he had done his first , and had only married her for reasons of ambition . She hated her step-children , and the king , seeing this , kept them out of the way , under the care of Dotterine 's old nurse . But if they ever strayed across the path of the queen , she would kick them out of her sight like dogs .
On Dotterine 's tenth birthday her nurse handed her over the cradle , and repeated to her her mother 's dying words ; but the child was too young to understand the value of such a gift , and XXXXX first thought little about it .
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