"Why didn't we wish to be queens or at least princesses?" one asked the other. "It would have been just as easy to have had our wishes granted!"
"Why didn't we! Why didn't we! How stupid we were!" cried the other.
They passed the time in plotting against their youngest sister, the queen.
A year flew by and twin sons were born to the royal pair. They had gold stars on their foreheads. The whole kingdom was filled with rejoicing. As for the listening king, he was so happy that he forgot to listen at people's doors.
The only persons in the whole country who were not happy were the two jealous sisters. They stole the tiny babies out of the palace and threw them into the river.
"Trouble has at last come to our listening king," said the wise men, when the loss was discovered.
The basket in which the twins had been placed floated away down the stream. It was found by a miller.
"What have we here?" he asked his wife as together they removed the cover from the basket.
"I guess it is something good to eat," said his wife. "What do you think it is?"
"I guess it is a poor little puppy which some one wanted to drown," replied the miller.
Then they took the cover off the basket. The two babies opened their eyes and smiled just then. The miller and his wife were the most surprised people in the whole country and also the happiest ones.
[Illustration: The miller and his wife were the most surprised people in the whole country]
"What beautiful children!" cried the miller.
"Of course we'll keep them," replied the miller. "The good God himself must have sent them to us in answer to our prayers."
Just then the miller's wife noticed the golden stars upon their foreheads.
"I don't know," answered her husband as he examined them carefully. "Perhaps it is just a sign that they are truly the gift of God."
The miller and his wife cared for the two children as if they had been their own. They lived such a long distance from the palace that they never heard the news that the royal babes were missing.
As the two boys grew older they became the handsomest, cleverest lads in the whole kingdom. The gold stars shone and twinkled upon their foreheads. At last the miller's wife made little caps for them to wear to hide the stars. They were altogether too conspicuous.