d'Aulnoy . THE THREE PRINCESSES OF WHITELAND THERE was once upon a time a fisherman , who lived hard by a palace and fished for the King 's table . One day he was out fishing , but caught nothing at all . Let him do what he might with rod and line , there was never even so much as a sprat on his hook ; but when the day was well nigh over , a head rose up out of the water , and said : ` If you will give me what your wife shows you when you go home , you shall catch fish enough . ' So the man said ` Yes ' in a moment , and then he caught fish in plenty ; but when he got home at night , and his wife showed him a baby which had just been born , and fell a-weeping and wailing when he told her of the promise which he had given , he was very unhappy . All this was soon told to the King up at the palace , and when he heard what sorrow the woman was in , and the reason of it , he said that he himself would take the child and see if he could not save it . The baby was a boy , and the King took him at once and brought him up as his own son until the lad grew up . Then one day he begged to have leave to go out with his father to fish ; he had a strong desire to do this , he said . The King was very unwilling to permit it , but at last the lad got leave . He stayed with his father , and all went prosperously and well with them the whole day , until they came back to land in the evening . Then the lad found that he had lost his pocket-handkerchief , and would go out in the boat after it ; but no sooner had he got into the boat than it began to move off with him so quickly that the water foamed all round about , and all that the lad did to keep the boat back with the oars was done to no purpose , for it went on and on the whole night through , and at last he came to a white strand that lay far , far away . There he landed , and when he had walked on for some distance he met an old man with a long white beard . ` What is the name of this country ? ' said the youth . ` Whiteland , ' answered the man , and then he begged the youth to tell him whence he came and what he was going to do , and the youth did so . ` Well , then , ' said the man , ` if you walk on farther along the seashore here , you will come to three princesses who are standing in the earth so that their heads alone are out of it . Then the first of them will call you -- she is the eldest -- and will beg you very prettily to come to her and help her , and the second will do the same , but you must not go near either of them . Hurry past , as if you neither saw nor heard them ; but you shall go to the third and do what she bids you ; it will bring you good fortune . ' When the youth came to the first princess , she called to him and begged him to come to her very prettily , but he walked on as if he did not even see her , and he passed by the second in the same way , but he went up to the third . ` If thou wilt do what I tell thee , thou shalt choose among us three , ' said the Princess .
So the lad said that he was most willing , and she told him XXXXX three Trolls had planted them all three there in the earth , but that formerly they had dwelt in the castle which he could see at some distance in the wood .
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