Once upon a time
           in a certain country there
          lived a king
         whose palace
            was surrounded
                   by a spacious garden.

    But,
           though the gardeners
            were many and the soil
                was good,
         this garden
              yielded neither flowers nor fruits,
           not even grass
              or shady trees.

    The King
        was in despair about it,
           when a wise old man
              said to him:

    "Your gardeners
          do not understand their business:
        but what
            can you expect of men
             whose fathers
                were cobblers and carpenters?

    How should
         they have learned
              to cultivate your garden?"

    "You are quite right,"
          cried the King.

    "Therefore,"
          continued the old man,
               "you should send
                   for a gardener
                 whose father and grandfather
                      have been gardeners
                 before him,
             and very soon your garden
                will be full
                       of green grass
                     and gay flowers,
               and you
                will enjoy its delicious fruit."

    So the King
          sent messengers to every town,
           village,
         and hamlet in his dominions,
           to look for a gardener
             whose forefathers
                had been gardeners also,
         and after forty days one
            was found.

    "Come with us
          and be gardener
               to the King,"
         they said to him.

    "How can
         I go to the King,"
            said the gardener,
               "a poor wretch like me?"

    "That is of
           no consequence," they answered.

    "Here are new clothes
           for you and your family."

    "But I
          owe money to several people."

    "We will
          pay your debts," they said.

    So the gardener allowed himself
          to be persuaded,
           and went
              away with the messengers,
         taking his wife
               and his son
             with him;
        and the King,
           delighted to have
              found a real gardener,
         entrusted him
               with the care
                   of his garden.

    The man
          found no difficulty
               in making the royal garden
             produce flowers and fruit,
           and at the end
               of a year the park
            was not
                  like the same place,
         and the King
              showered gifts
                   upon his new servant.

    The gardener,
           as you have heard already,
         had a son,
           who was
               a very handsome young man,
         with most agreeable manners,
           and every day
             he carried the best fruit
                   of the garden
                 to the King,
         and all the prettiest flowers
               to his daughter.

    Now this princess
        was wonderfully pretty
            and was
                  just sixteen years old,
           and the King
            was beginning to think it
                was time
             that she should be married.

    "My dear child,"
          said he,
               "you are of an age
                  to take a husband,
             therefore I
                am thinking of marrying you
                       to the son
                           of my prime minister.

    "Father,"
          replied the Princess,
               "I will never
                  marry the son
                       of the minister."

    "Why not?"

    asked the King.

    "Because I love
           the gardener's son,"
              answered the Princess.

    On hearing this the King
        was at first very angry,
           and then
             he wept and sighed,
         and declared
             that such a husband
                was not worthy
                       of his daughter;
        but the young Princess
            was not
                  to be
                     turned from her resolution
                      to marry the gardener's son.

    Then the King
          consulted his ministers.

    "This is
         what you
            must do," they said.

    "To get rid
           of the gardener you
        must send
               both suitors
                   to a very distant country,
           and the one
             who returns first
                shall marry your daughter."

    The King followed this advice,
           and the minister's son
            was presented
                   with a splendid horse
                       and a purse full
                           of gold pieces,
         while the gardener's son
            had only
                   an old lame horse
                 and a purse full
                       of copper money,