" But nobody was able. Thereupon the King
said: "The third question is: How many seconds are there in eternity?"
"In Lower Pomerania is situated the adamantine mountain, one mile in
height, one mile in breadth, and one mile deep; and thither comes
a bird once in every thousand years which rubs its beak against the
hill, and, when the whole shall be rubbed away, then will the first
second of eternity be gone by."
"You have answered the three questions like a sage," said the King,
"and from henceforward you shall live with me in my palace, and I will
treat you as my own child."
* * * * *
THE THREE SPINNERS
Once upon a time there was a lazy maiden who would not spin, and, let
her mother say what she would, she could not make her do it. At last,
the mother, in a fit of impatience, gave her a blow which made the
girl cry out loudly.
At that very instant, the Queen drove by, and, hearing the screams,
she stopped the carriage, came into the house, and asked the mother
why she beat her daughter in such a way that people in passing could
hear the cries.
Then the mother felt ashamed that her daughter's laziness should be
known, so she said: "Oh, your Majesty, I cannot take her away from her
spinning: she spins from morning till night, and I am so poor that I
cannot afford to buy the flax.
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