The heron had become quite fond of the Princess; wherever she went it followed her, and, indeed, without it nowhere would she go. Whenever it was near her, the Princess laughed and sang, and when it was out of her sight she became sad as night. All the courtiers wept to see her in such bondage. “Ah,” said she, “your eyes have been worn out with looking at things so long; mine have been kept for me in a mirror.” When the good family Fairy came (for she was at once sent for by the Queen, and told of all that had happened), she said, “Dear Madam, there are but two things you can do: either you can wring the heron’s neck, and leave the Princess to die of grief; or you can make the Princess happy in her own way, by——” Her voice dropped, and she looked from the King to the Queen before she went on. “At her birth I gave your daughter love for my gift; now it is hers, will you let her keep it?” The King and the Queen looked softly at each other. “Do not take love from her,” said they, “let her keep it!” “There is but one way,” answered the Fairy. “Do not tell me the way,” said the Queen weeping, “only let the way be!” So they went with the Fairy down to the great pond, and there sat the Princess, with the grey heron against her heart. She smiled as she saw them come. “I see good in your hearts toward me!” she cried. “Dear godmother, give me the thing that I want, that my love may be happy!” Then the Fairy stroked her but once with her wand, and two grey herons suddenly rose up from the bank, and sailed away to a hiding-place in the reeds. The Fairy said to the Queen, “You have made your daughter happy; and still she will have her voice and her human heart, and will remember you with love and gratitude; but her greatest love will be to the grey heron, and her home among the reeds.” So the changed life of the Princess began; every day her mother went down to the pool and called, and the Princess came rising up out of the reeds, and folded her grey wings over her mother’s heart. Every day her mother said, “Daughter of mine, are you happy?” And the Princess answered her, “Yes, for I love and am loved.” Yet each time the mother heard more and more of a note of sadness come into her daughter’s voice; and at last one day she said, “Answer me truly, as the mother who brought you into the world, whether you be happy in your heart of hearts or no?” Then the heron-Princess laid her head on the Queen’s heart, and said, “Mother, my heart is breaking with love!” “For whom, then?” asked the Queen astonished.