have dug it, kneel down and whisper your secret three times into
the hole. Then put back the earth and come away.'

The apprentice thought that this seemed the best plan, and that
very afternoon went to a meadow outside the town, dug a deep
hole, then knelt and whispered to it three times over, 'The
Emperor Trojan has goat's ears.' And as he said so a great
burden seemed to roll off him, and he shovelled the earth
carefully back and ran lightly home.

Weeks passed away, and there sprang up in the hole an elder tree
which had three stems, all as straight as poplars. Some
shepherds, tending their flocks near by, noticed the tree growing
there, and one of them cut down a stem to make flutes of; but,
directly he began to play, the flute would do nothing but sing:
'The Emperor Trojan has goat's ears.' Of course, it was not long
before the whole town knew of this wonderful flute and what it
said; and, at last, the news reached the emperor in his palace.
He instantly sent for the apprentice and said to him:

'What have you been saying about me to all my people?'

The culprit tried to defend himself by saying that he had never
told anyone what he had noticed; but the emperor, instead of
listening, only drew his sword from its sheath, which so
frightened the poor fellow that he confessed exactly what he had
done, and how he had whispered the truth three times to the
earth, and how in that very place an elder tree had sprung up,
and flutes had been cut from it, which would only repeat the
words he had said. Then the emperor commanded his coach to be