about this time, the son of the king was travelling about the country looking for a bride. he was not to choose a poor one, and did not want to have a rich one. so he said, "she shall be my wife who is the poorest, and at the same time the richest." when he came to the village where the maiden dwelt, he inquired, as he did wherever he went, who was the richest and also the poorest girl in the place? they first named the richest; the poorest, they said, was the girl who lived in the small house quite at the end of the village. the rich girl was sitting in all her splendour before the door of her house, and when the prince approached her, she got up, went to meet him, and made him a low curtsey. he looked at her, said nothing, and rode on. when he came to the house of the poor girl, she was not standing at the door, but sitting in her little room. he stopped his horse, and saw through the window, on which the bright sun was shining, the girl sitting at her spinning-wheel, busily spinning. she looked up, and when she saw that the prince was looking in, she blushed all over her face, let her eyes fall, and went on spinning. i do not know whether, just at that moment, the thread was quite even; but she went on spinning until the king’s son had ridden away again. then she went to the window, opened it, and said, "it is so warm in this room!" but she still looked after him as long as she could distinguish the white feathers in his hat. then she sat down to work again in her own room and went on with her spinning, and a saying which the old woman had often repeated when she was sitting at her work, came into her mind, and she sang these words to herself,—