The Salt (The Child's Story)

The Little Girl's Story

Once upon a time there was a king who had three daughters. When he grew old and aged, he was at a loss which of them to choose to succeed him on the throne and be proclaimed queen after him. So he summoned them and said to them: I shall bequeath the kingdom to whichever of you loves me more than her two sisters.

The eldest said: To me you are dearer than gold, Father. And she kissed his hand.

The middle one said: To me you are dearer than precious stones, Father. And she kissed his cheek.

As for the youngest, whose name was Maria, she said: To me you are dearer than salt, Father.

At that the two sisters burst out laughing; as for the king, when he heard Maria's words he flew into a violent rage and rebuked her, saying:

— Leave my palace and get out of my sight forever. And when the day comes that people prefer salt to gold and precious stones, you may return.

The girl went out of the palace, hot tears rolling down her cheeks, and Maria kept walking without direction, going farther, and farther, and farther from her father's palace, until she came to a great tangled forest — she knew not how she had reached it. There she saw an old woman sitting on the trunk of a tree. The girl greeted her, and the old woman asked her:

— Why are you sad and weeping, my daughter?

Maria told her what had happened between her and her father and her sisters, and how she had come to wander the earth with no family and no helper. Then the old woman said to her:

Come with me and tend my sheep, and I will teach you spinning and the weaving of wool; and fear nothing.

That old woman was a fairy who ruled over the treasures of the earth. Days and months went by. In the king's palace, meanwhile, the two sisters were holding banquets and festivals, dancing, wearing the most sumptuous clothes, and adorning themselves with the costliest jewels and precious stones. It was not long before the king realized that gold and jewelry were, in his daughters' eyes, dearer than their father.

He grieved greatly at this and began to think of Maria.

And then the old woman began to use her wondrous power.

One day the palace cook came, kissed the ground before the king, and said to him, trembling:

— My lord, all the salt in the palace has melted and run like water, and not a grain of salt is left in the whole land. What are your orders, Your Majesty?

The king, greatly agitated, said:

— There is nothing for it but to eat sweets.

And day after day the food was made with sugar. Before long the people lost their appetite for eating and drinking. The people of the kingdom grieved and became the most wretched of all the people of the earth. Diseases spread. And then the king knew that he had wronged Maria, and he repented of having driven her from the palace.

The girl, however, knew nothing of all this. One day the old woman said to her, in her little house in the middle of the forest:

— Maria, the time has come for you to return to your father's palace.

— But my father has forbidden me to enter the palace or to see his face.

Then the old woman told her all that had happened, and gave her a small bag filled with salt, and a staff, and said to her:

— When the wind blows from the south, walk against it, and cross three hills and three valleys. Then strike the ground with your staff, and the earth will open before you at once; and whatever you find, take it, for it is your wedding gift.

Maria thanked the old woman warmly and promised to come back and take her with her to her father's palace. But the old woman would not accept; instead she said to the girl:

— Remain always as you are, good and loving toward people, that you may be happy in life.

Then the old woman vanished, and the girl never saw her again after that.

Maria was dressed in the clothes of the poor. She hurried to her father's palace, but the guards barred her from entering the palace when they looked at her clothes, and they told her that the king was ill. But Maria pleaded with the guards and said:

— I beg you to let me in, for I bring the king a gift dearer than gold and jewels.

At last they allowed her, and she went in and bent over her sick father's head. He did not know her, and she said to him:

— I bring you a gift of salt, my lord.

The king cried out:

— Salt! It is the most beautiful gift on earth. Ask of me whatever you wish in return.

Maria said:

— I ask nothing, Father, except that you love me more than salt. I am Maria.

The king wept for joy. And Maria offered a handful of salt to everyone in the palace, and still the bag the old woman had given her remained full. The king was cured of his illness at once. He summoned the ministers, proclaimed Maria queen, and seated her upon the throne.

And then she felt the breeze blowing from the south; so she walked against the wind, crossed three hills and three valleys, and then struck the ground with her staff.

The earth split open beneath her feet, and Maria saw the steps of a staircase going down into the earth; and on the staircase stood dwarfs with lighted torches in their hands, and they said to her:

— Welcome, beautiful queen. We have been waiting for you a long time. Our mistress has commanded us to show you all these treasures, for they are all yours.

So the girl went down the steps, the dwarfs going before her to light her way, and she found herself in a palace whose walls gleamed with gold and jewels; from its ceiling hung flowers of every kind — roses and narcissus and carnations and jasmine — and millions of precious stones shone and sparkled in every corner of the palace. Maria cried out:

— I never dreamed of such treasures!

The dwarfs answered her:

— Everything you see is made of salt.

And when Maria came out, the earth stayed open; and when she returned to her father's palace she told him what she had seen.

From that time the salt in the old woman's bag ran out, and the people began to take as much salt as they wished from the enchanted palace. As for the eldest and the middle sisters, envy crept into their hearts; but the king and the people loved Maria dearly.

Yet the girl remained as she was — good and loving toward everyone, as the old woman had bidden her. The grandeur of the throne and of kingship did not dazzle her, and never in her life did she forget the old woman who had loved her and been kind to her.