i. how the bramble gatherer’s daughter went toward her fortune

i am called bird-of-gold (said the girl, beginning her story), but that name did not belong to me until i was a girl grown. before that i had no name. in the city where i was born and where i lived i was known as “the bramble gatherer’s child.”

my father was the poorest of all the men of that town. he gathered brambles and thorns in the wilderness and brought them in a bundle to the hut where we lived. then, while he was gathering another bundle on another day, i would go through the town selling the brambles and thorns for stuff for the people’s fires. my mother i never knew. i grew up with my father, and we two had even[pg 72] less than the sparrows. i had no playmate nor no friend, and what i got for the thorns and brambles i sold brought us but little to eat.

one day as i passed along the street of the city it came into my mind that i was grown to be a girl. the thought that i should go from the city grew in me from that time. my father would miss me, but he would flourish the better if there was one, and not two, to eat the scanty meal that the price of the brambles and thorns gained for us.

i got for myself the cap and jacket of a boy. then one morning when my father had gone from the hut and had turned his face to the wilderness and his back to the city, i went out of the door and turned to the wilderness also. i took a direction that would bring me far from where my father had gone. i had dressed myself as a boy, and my thought was that i would come upon a merchant who would let me do service for him, and who, perhaps, would take me on a voyage. and i thought that i might win some fortune for myself, and that then i could return and take my father out of toil and hardship.

[pg 73]

i came to the wilderness and i went through it. when the sun was halfway in the heavens i came to where there was a road. there was a pillar before me and that pillar had writing upon it. i read what was written there. the words were: they who take the road to the right will come to their fortune at last, and they who take the road to the left will be ever as they have been. when i read that writing i took the road that was to my right.

i went along that road thinking every minute that i should come upon something that would bring me to my fortune. the light faded as i went along, and soon i had to look about for some tree or cave that would give me a shelter for the night. at last i saw a hut and i went toward it. when i came before the broken door i knew the place i had been brought to. it was my father’s hut—the hut i had left that morning. and as i stood before it i saw my father coming from the other side with the bundle of brambles and thorns upon his back. then i said to myself, “how lying was the writing that said that they[pg 74] who took the road to their right would come at last to their fortune.”

i went into the hut with my father. in the darkness that was there he did not see that i had on the cap and jacket of a boy. he laid the bundle of brambles and thorns down on the floor while i went to prepare the meal for both of us. and while my father was lighting a fire i took off the cap and jacket of a boy and i put on my girl’s dress.

my father, when he had eaten his meal, said to me, “to-day when i had gathered the brambles and had made them into a bundle i lay with my head on the bundle and went to sleep. i awakened feeling some warmth near where my head lay. i looked to see if perchance fire had come upon the brambles and thorns, and, lo! what i saw laid on the bundle was the egg of a bird. the egg was still warm, and the bird that laid it must have flown as i awakened.”

my father showed me the egg. it was strangely marked and was heavy for its size. i looked at it, and my father said, “take it to the merchant to-[pg 75]morrow, and maybe he will give a coin for it, for surely it is remarkable.”

the next day, when my father had gone into the wilderness, i went to the shop of the merchant. i showed him the egg that had the strange markings upon it, and i asked him if he would give me something for it. and when the merchant had taken the egg in his hand he said, “this is something to be shown the king. it is undoubtedly the egg of the bird of gold.”

i was greatly stirred when i heard the merchant say this, and i thought that perhaps my fortune would come to me through this egg. i went back to the hut, and in the morning, before my father started off for his bramble gathering, two officers came and they took my father and me to the palace and before the king. and the king said, “it is known that of all creatures in the world the bird of gold is best worth possessing. for her claws can be made into an amulet that will bring wealth to the one who wears it, and the one who eats her heart can never be slain by his enemy. i would have the bird of gold whose egg you have[pg 76] found. you know where she abides. catch her and bring her to me, and i shall reward you.”

so spoke the king of our little country. my father and i went into the wilderness to search for the bird of gold around the place where the egg had been laid. and in the very place where before he had lain my father put down his bundle of brambles and thorns. laying his head upon the bundle, he went to sleep.

i watched beside the brambles and thorns. and after a time a bird came running along the ground, and went fluttering up on the bundle and made a nest for herself there. small she was and all golden except for the blue that was under her throat, and the blue that was upon her feet. as she was making a nest for herself i put my hands upon her and caught her. i held her to my breast to keep her from fluttering away.

and i said aloud, “o bird, now i shall be rewarded for taking thee. for the king would make an amulet of thy feet that he may have wealth, and he would eat thy heart that his enemies[pg 77] may not be able to slay him. greatly will he reward me for having taken thee, o bird of gold.”

and as i spoke to her and held her to my breast the bird made a cry that sounded as “alas, alas!” i looked upon her again and my heart was filled with sorrow for the bird i had taken. why should her claws be made into an amulet for the king, and why should her heart be eaten by him? i sat there thinking while my father slept, holding the bird very gently to my breast. and when she cried again “alas, alas!” i opened my hands and i let her fly away. she fluttered near for a while as if to show herself to me, and then she rose up and flew away.

my father awakened, and he said, “it is near dark, and the bird of gold will not come now. perhaps we will find her on another day. the king should reward us for our search, and now we will go and tell him of it.”

so we rose up and we went into the city. and when we came before him, my father spoke to the king and told him that the bird of gold was not[pg 78] to be seen in the places where we had searched. then the king would have sent us away without doing any evil to us only that one who was near him cried out: “behold, o king, and decree a punishment for these two deceivers. one has declared that the bird of gold did not come near where they searched. but look on the dress of the girl: all around her breast are the feathers of the bird of gold.”

thereupon i looked down and i saw that the bird’s golden feathers were all strewn around the place where i had held her to me. i was grasped by the hands and brought before the king. and he cried out, “have you the bird hidden?” i said: “no, o king. i let the bird fly out of my hands.” then the king spoke to one who stood beside him, and he commanded that i should be taken and put upon a ship and thrown into the depths of the sea.

i was taken from my father who wept and cried after me, and i was brought down to the river and put upon a ship. the one who was commanded by the king to take me and throw me into[pg 79] the depths of the sea was a man with a great hooked nose and a purple beard. on his hand was a ring with a great emerald in it. he was the captain of the king’s ships.

i was put upon the ship, and the next day we sailed down the river and came out on the sea. now, although the king had commanded that i be thrown into the depths of the sea, i was not then in as great a danger as i am in now, o king of the western island. for the captain of his ships hated all the words that the king gave him, and those whom the king would slay he would save, and those whom the king would save he would have slain. when we came into the open sea, so that he might obey the king’s word and at the same time make a mock of it, he had me thrown into the water, but with a rope around my waist. after i had been plunged into the water he had me drawn out of it, and i was left living on the ship. and from the captain who had had me plunged into the sea in such ways and from the sailors on the ship i got the name by which i have been known ever since—bird of gold.