The poor man answered: “God, and our great poverty.” Then the king gave him thirty eggs, saying— “Take these eggs to your daughter, and tell her to hatch chickens out of them, and I will reward her handsomely; but if she cannot hatch them, it will go ill with you.” The poor man went crying back to his hovel, and related to his daughter what had passed. The maiden saw at once that the eggs had been boiled, but she told her father to go to rest, and assured him that she would see that all went well. The father followed her advice, and went to sleep; the maiden took a pot, filled it with water and beans, and set it on the fire. On the following morning, the beans being quite boiled, she told her father to take a plow and oxen, and to plow along the road where the king would pass. “And,” she added, “when you see the king, take the beans, sow them, and cry, ‘Hi! go on, oxen mine! Heaven be with me, and make my boiled beans take root and grow!’ And when the king asks you how it is possible for boiled beans to grow, answer him, that it is quite as possible as for boiled eggs to yield chickens.” The poor man hearkened to his daughter, went away, and began to plow. When he saw the king coming he began to cry— “Hi, go on, oxen mine! God help me, and make my boiled beans take root and grow!” The king, hearing these words, stopped on the road, and said to the poor man— “Here, fellow! how is it possible for boiled beans to grow?” And the poor man answered him— “Heaven prosper you, king! just as possible as for boiled eggs to yield chickens.” The king guessed at once that it was the poor man’s daughter who had taught him this answer. He ordered his servants to seize him and bring him into his presence. Then he gave him a bundle of flax, and said to him— “Take this flax and make out of it ropes and sails and all that is wanted on shipboard; if you do not, you shall lose your head.” The poor man took the bundle in great fear, and went crying home to his daughter, to whom he related all that had passed. But the maiden sent him again to rest with the promise that all should go well. On the following day she took a small piece of wood, awoke her father, and said to him— “Take this wood, and carry it to the king; let him cut a spinning wheel, a spindle, and a loom out of it, and I will do all that he demands of me.” The poor man again followed the directions of his daughter; he went to the king and delivered the maiden’s message. The king was astonished at hearing this, and began to think what he should do next. At last he took up a small cup, and said as he gave it to the father— “Take this cup to your daughter, and let her empty the sea with it, so that it shall become like a dry field.” The poor man obeyed with tears in his eyes, and took the cup to his daughter with the king’s message. But the maiden told him he need only leave the matter till the morning, when she would see to it.