Good Reading: "The Starling" by Ludwig Bechstein (translated into English)

Once on a time on a fine summer's evening a young knight stopped at the door of an inn bordering on a wood. As he halted, a young girl came out of the house and asked him what he wished to have. He called for a goblet of cool wine, She quickly brought it, first tasted it with her ruddy lips, and then handed it to him. While he was drinking it, the hostess, an ugly old woman with a yellow face and withered with age, came to the inn-door. "Hello, hostess!" cried the knight, "you have a pretty daughter here!"

"She is not my daughter," answered the hostess, "but an orphan. She has no home except the one I have given her out of charity."

By now the knight had taken a fancy to the girl and wanted to hear somewhat of her history. He got off his horse and ordered a bath to be prepared for him and also a bed. Then he went into the house while the landlady bade the girl gather some rosemary, thyme and marjoram for the bath.

While she was busy gathering the herbs, a starling flew out of a bush close by and sang,

    Oh, I'm so unhappy for you, girl! You should bathe the young man in the bath-tub you came here in.

    Your father is dead of a broken heart and your mother sits grieving all day for you and thinks you are dead too.

    Oh, I'm so unhappy for you, foundling child! Don't you know your father or mother?"

The poor girl was frightened and saddened to hear the starling speak this and prepared the bath with tears running down her cheeks. Then she carried the small bath-tub to the room where the young knight was. When he saw her red eyes, he asked her what was the matter, since she did not look merry, did not try to entertain him, and brought him such a small tub to bathe in.

"How can I be merry?" she said, with a fresh burst of grief; "I weep because of something a starling told me while I was gathering herbs to scent your bath,

    I'm so unhappy for you, girl! You should bathe the young man in the bath-tub you came here in.

    Your father is dead of a broken heart and your mother sits grieving all day for you and thinks you are dead too.

    Oh, I'm so unhappy for you, foundling child! Don't you know your father or mother?

While she said this, the young knight looked at the bath-tub and noticed the royal symbols of the king of Rheims on it. He wondered greatly and exclaimed, "That is my father's coat of arms! How did it get here?"

    I'm so unhappy for you, foundling child! Don't you know your father or mother yet?

sang the starling at the window. The knight looked again at the maiden and caught sight of a mole on her neck. "Praise the Lord!" he exclaimed. "You are my sister! Your father was king of Rheims and your mother's name is Christine, and I am Conrad, your brother. Now I know why my heart beat so rapidly when I first saw you."

They embraced one another with tears of joy in their eyes, thanked the Lord and afterwards spent the rest of the night telling what had happened to them since they were parted.

The next morning, as soon as it was light, the old woman came downstairs, calling out with a loud harsh voice, "Get up, get up, girl, and sweep my room!"

Then the young knight answered in his clear voice, "She is no servant, and will not sweep your room again. Bring us a draught of wine yourself now!"

The landlady brought the wine as she was told and Conrad asked her, "Where did you get this noble maiden from? She is a princess and my sister!"

The old woman turned pale and fell on her knees. But she did not say a word, for sitting on the window-sill was the starling. He sang,

    In a garden far away from here, on the green grass, sat a little child in a bath-tub. While her nurse went away for a minute, a wicked old gipsy woman came and carried off the child in the bath-tub.

The knight was so enraged at hearing this that he drew his sword and thrust it through the woman. Then he kissed his beautiful sister, and taking the bath-tub with him, led her by her hand out of the house and placed her before him on his horse, placing the bath-tub in her lap. The starling perched itself on her shoulder.

They rode to the castle of the king of Rheims, where the queen-mother still lived. As soon as the queen saw them coming, she went out to meet them and asked astonished, "Son, what servant have you got there? I see she brings a bath-tub with her as if she has come to nurse children."

"Oh, mother dear," answered the young prince, "she is no servant, but your daughter who was stolen away from you in this bath."

As soon as he had said this, the princess leapt from the saddle and her mother fell into her arms in a swoon of joy.

The starling sang,

    Today it is eighteen years since the princess was stolen and carried away in the bath-tub, over the Rhine. And I dare say that the old woman will never steal children again.

The princess kept the starling with her afterwards, and was as grateful to the bird as can be for talking to them so that she no longer was kept beneath a wicked woman.