whomsoever the child gave the apple, that man should marry the
king's daughter.

'Of course,' said the king, 'it may not be the right man, after
all, but then again it MAY be. Anyhow, it is the best we can do.'

The princess herself led the child into the room where the twenty
men were now seated. She stood in the centre of the ring for a
moment, looking at one man after another, and then held out the
apple to the Shifty Lad, who was twisting a shaving of wood round
his finger, and had the mouthpiece of a bagpipe hanging from his
neck.

'You ought not to have anything which the others have not got,'
said the chamberlain, who had accompanied the princess; and he
bade the child stand outside for a minute, while he took away the
shaving and the mouthpiece, and made the Shifty Lad change his
place. Then he called the child in, but the little girl knew him
again, and went straight up to him with the apple.

'This is the man whom the child has twice chosen,' said the
chamberlain, signing to the Shifty Lad to kneel before the king.
'It was all quite fair; we tried it twice over.' In this way the
Shifty Lad won the king's daughter, and they were married the
next day.

A few days later the bride and bridegroom were taking a walk
together, and the path led down to the river, and over the river
was a bridge.