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356 THE KING OF THE GOLDEN MOUNTAIN. |
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Instantly he turned up the sleeve of his shirt, and there was the mark of the raspberry quite plainly to be seen. So they could no longer doubt that he was their son.
Thereupon he told them all that had happened to him, and how he had been saved when the boat was upset. He said also that he was now king of the golden mountain, and that the princess whom he had rescued was his wife, and that he had a little son nearly seven years old. But his father still doubted, especially when he said this.
" What you say cannot be true," he remarked, " for grand kings, such as you describe, do not wear ragged clothes and a shepherd's coat."
Upon this, the son became very angry, and quite forgetting his promise to his wife, turned the ring on his finger, and wished both the queen and her son to be present.
In a moment they were there; but the queen wept, and complained, and said, as he had broken his word, that misfortune would be the consequence.
" I did it inadvertently," he said, " and not with any wrong intention," and tried so much to persuade her to forgive him, that at last she made it appear that she did so, but she was still angry in her heart.
He led her out through the town to the field, and showed her where the little ship had been upset; and presently he said, " I am tired now, sit down for a little while, and let me lay my head in your lap and sleep." She seated herself, and lying down, he placed his head in her lap, and was soon asleep.
While he slept, she first slipped the ring off his finger and placed it on her own, then she quietly and gently lifted his head from her lap, and laid it on the ground. As soon as this was done, she took her child by the arm, and wished herself and her boy back in her kingdom.
When he awoke, he found himself quite forsaken, his wife and child gone, and the ring taken from his finger. " I cannot go home to my parents after this," he said to himself; " they will say truly that I am a sorcerer. No; I must try and get back to my kingdom."
He travelled on after this for a long time, till he came to a mountain, before which stood three giants., contending about the division of their father's property. |
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