Although the brides of the other Princes were very fair, yet all agreed that the bride of Boots was the most beautiful of all. VIGGO AND BEATE[L] _Translated by Mrs. Gudrun Thorne-Thompson_ THE DOLL UNDER THE BRIER ROSEBUSH There was once a girl, and her name was Beate. On her birthday her father had given her a beautiful straw hat. Her mother had given her a pair of yellow shoes and the daintiest white dress. But her old aunt had given her the very best present of all; it was a doll, with a sweet face and dark brown curls. Oh, how Beate grew to love that doll, almost more than she loved Marie and Louise, and they were her best friends. One day Beate was walking in the yard with her doll in her arms. It had a name now, and they had become fast friends. She had called her Beate, her own name, and the name of her old aunt who had given her the present. It was in the early Spring. There was a green spot in one corner of the yard around the old well. There stood a big willow tree with a low trunk, and it was covered with the little yellow blossoms that children call "goslings." They look like goslings, too, for each little tassel has soft yellow down, and they can swim in the water. Now, Big Beate and Little Beate soon agreed that they would pick goslings from the tree and throw them into the well, so that these might have just as good a time as the big geese and goslings that were swimming about in the pond. It was really Big Beate who thought of this first, but Little Beate agreed immediately; you can't imagine how good she always was. Now, Big Beate climbed up into the willow and picked many pretty yellow goslings into her little white apron, and when she counted them she said that now they had enough, and Little Beate thought so too. Both of them ran over to the well, and Big Beate helped her little friend to get her legs firmly fixed between the logs that were around the well, so that she might sit in comfort and watch the little goslings swim about on the water. Then gosling after gosling was dropped down, and as soon as each one reached the water it seemed to become alive and it moved about. Oh, what fun! But after awhile the little goslings would not swim any longer, but lay quite still. That was no fun at all, so Big Beate asked her namesake if she didn't think she might lean a little over the edge of the well and blow on them, for then she thought they might come to life again. Little Beate didn't answer, but she raised her left eye-brow, saying, "Please don't do that, dear Big Beate! Don't you remember, Mother has told us how dark it is down there in the well? Think, if you should fall in!" "Oh, nonsense; just see how easy it is," said Big Beate. She leaned out over the wall and blew on the nearest ones. Yes, it helped--the goslings began to swim again. But those that were farthest away didn't move at all.