English and Scottish Popular Ballads Vol. 1 of 5 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The English and Scottish Popular Ballads Vol. 1 of 5<br><br>They followed these directions the king gave his verdict the ambassador acquiesced the minister received splendid presents. For a final trial the unfriendly king sent a long stick of wood of equal thickness with no knots or marks and asked which was the under and which the upper end. N 0 one could say. The minister referred the question to his daughter. She answered Put the stick into water the root end will sink a little the upper end ?oat. The experiment was tried; the king said to the ambassador This is the upper end this the root end to which he assented and great presents were again given to the minister. The adverse monarch was convinced that his only safe course was peace and con ciliation and sent his ambassador back once more with an offering of precious jewels and of amity for the future. This termination was highly gratifying to Rabssaldschal who said to his minister How could you see through all these things? The minister said It was not I but my clever daughter-in-law. When the king learned this he raised the young woman to the rank of his younger sister.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases an imperfection in the original such as a blemish or missing page may be replicated in our edition. We do however repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.