And then the sister was left all alone once more; when her brothers came home, she said: "Brothers, we lack nothing save three things."
"What are they?"
"We haven't a Talking-Bird, a Singing-Tree, and the Water of Life!"
The elder brother said: "Sister, give me your blessing, and I'll go and discover you these marvels. If I die, or am killed, you will know by this knife dripping blood. There it is, stuck into the wall."
So he went, and wandered away, far, far away into the forest. At last he came to a gigantic oak-tree; and on the tree there was an old man sitting, whom he asked how he was to procure the "Talking-Bird, a Singing-Tree, and the Water of Life."
The old man replied: "Possible it is, but not easy; many go, but few return."
But the young man persisted and left the old man. The old man gave him a rolling-pin, and told him to let it roll on in front of him, and follow wherever it went. The pin rolled on, and after it walked the Prince: it rolled up to a steep hill, and was lost. Then the Prince went up the hill, went half-way up; and, as he went along, he heard a voice: "Hold him, seize him, grip him!" He looked round and was turned into stone.
That very same hour blood began to drip from the knife in the cottage, and the sister told the younger brother that the elder was dead.
So he answered: "Now I will go, sister mine, and capture the Talking-Bird, the Singing-Tree, and the Water of Life!"
So she blessed him, and he went on and on for very many weary miles, and met the old man on the tree, who gave him another rolling-pin: and the pin rolled up to the mountain; and both were lost, pin and Prince!
The sister waited for many years, but he never came
