She considered
a moment, then put the king upon his honor with the simple remark:
'If thou art truly the king, then I believe thee.'
'I am truly the king.'
This settled the matter. His majesty's royalty was accepted
without further question or discussion, and the two little girls began
at once to inquire into how he came to be where he was, and how he
came to be so unroyally clad, and whither he was bound, and all
about his affairs. It was a mighty relief to him to pour out his
troubles where they would not be scoffed at or doubted; so he told his
tale with feeling, forgetting even his hunger for the time; and it was
received with the deepest and tenderest sympathy by the gentle
little maids. But when he got down to his latest experiences and
they learned how long he had been without food, they cut him short and
hurried him away to the farmhouse to find a breakfast for him.
The king was cheerful and happy now, and said to himself, 'When
I am come to mine own again, I will always honor little children,
remembering how that these trusted me and believed in me in my time of
trouble; whilst they that were older, and thought themselves wiser,
mocked at me and held me for a liar.'
The children's mother received the king kindly, and was full of
pity; for his forlorn condition and apparently crazed intellect
touched her womanly heart. She was a widow, and rather poor;
consequently she had seen trouble enough to enable her to feel for the
unfortunate.
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