ladies could compare for a moment with the late queen.

At length, one day, when he had turned away discouraged from a
fresh collection of pictures, the king's eyes fell on his adopted
daughter, who had lived in the palace since she was a baby, and
he saw that, if a woman existed on the whole earth more lovely
than the queen, this was she! He at once made known what his
wishes were, but the young girl, who was not at all ambitious,
and had not the faintest desire to marry him, was filled with
dismay, and begged for time to think about it. That night, when
everyone was asleep, she started in a little car drawn by a big
sheep, and went to consult her fairy godmother.

‘I know what you have come to tell me,' said the fairy, when the
maiden stepped out of the car; ‘and if you don't wish to marry
him, I will show you how to avoid it. Ask him to give you a dress
that exactly matches the sky. It will be impossible for him to
get one, so you will be quite safe.' The girl thanked the fairy
and returned home again.

The next morning, when her father (as she had always called him)
came to see her, she told him that she could give him no answer
until he had presented her with a dress the colour of the sky.
The king, overjoyed at this answer, sent for all the choicest
weavers and dressmakers in the kingdom, and commanded them to
make a robe the colour of the sky without an instant's delay, or
he would cut off their heads at once. Dreadfully frightened at
this threat, they all began to dye and cut and sew, and in two
days they brought back the dress, which looked as if it had been
cut straight out of the heavens! The poor girl was thunderstruck,