Inspired by an Italian folk tale
In a little house there lived three young ladies. One was sixty-seven, another was seventy-five, and the third, well, she was ninety-four. Their house had a little balcony, where all three of them liked to watch people walking by on the street and see what was happening in town.
One day, the oldest, Clementine, saw a handsome young man passing by and dropped her handkerchief from the balcony. The young man picked up the handkerchief, took a sniff, and thought to himself:
“Such a lovely, sweet-smelling handkerchief could only belong to a beautiful young lady.”
The young man looked around, saw the balcony, but there was no one there. So he went up to the house and knocked on the door. One of the sisters opened the door for him.
“Good afternoon, does a woman live in this house?” asked the young man.
“Of course. In fact, there are three,” said the old woman.
“I’d like to see the one who lost this handkerchief,” said the young man.
“That isn’t possible,” replied the old woman. “In this house we have a rule: until a girl is married, no one is allowed to see her.”
But the young man kept thinking about how beautiful she must be, and his imagination got so carried away that he blurted out, “If that’s how it is, then I’ll marry her.” It doesn’t matter that I haven’t seen her. Now I’m going to my parents to tell them that I’ll be marrying the beautiful young girl who owns this handkerchief.”
So the young man went home and told his mother, the Queen. He was actually a young king. His mother listened but shook her head.
“My dear son, think carefully about this. You haven’t even seen her. What if they tricked you?”
“I’ve already given my word. And a king’s word must be kept,” replied the young king.
Still, he couldn’t resist and went back to the house of his future bride. When he knocked, the same Old woman he had spoken to before came to answer the door.
“Tell me, please, are you the Grandma of my beloved?” asked the King.
“Well, of course. I am her Grandma.”
“Grandma, please, don’t be stubborn—just show me at least one little finger of the girl,” begged the King.
“I can’t do that right now. But come back tomorrow.”
The King said goodbye to the old lady and left. He couldn’t sleep all night, he was so excited at the thought of seeing a finger from his beautiful bride. Meanwhile, three old women were making a fake finger out of a glove and an artificial nail.
Shortly after sunrise, the young king arrived at the house and knocked impatiently on the door.
“Madam, I’m here,” he said to the old woman when she came to open the door. “I want to see my bride’s finger.”
“Look here, in just a moment the bride will stick her finger out through the keyhole.”
And sure enough, a very beautiful finger appeared from the keyhole. The young king kissed it and slipped a ring onto it. He was so happy about it all that he said,
“I want to get married as soon as possible. I’ll have the wedding tomorrow—what do you think?”
“Well, what’s stopping you, young man?”
“Wonderful! I’m getting married tomorrow,” the King cheered, and right away he ordered a feast and started preparing the wedding.
That day, two old ladies brought in the bride, hidden beneath three veils.
“And remember,” the old ladies said, “you mustn’t see the bride until after the wedding, once the sun has set.”
So, the wedding was held, and the King took the one beneath the veils as his wife. He couldn’t wait for evening to come, so he could finally be alone with the bride. But the old women escorted the bride all the way to the bedroom, dressed her in her nightgown, and tucked her under the covers. Then they left, but they snuffed out all the candles.
But the king wasn’t foolish. He took a candle with him and slipped it into his pocket. He lit it, and suddenly he was frozen in shock—lying in the bed before him was an old, wrinkled lady!
When the king finally recovered from his initial shock, he was overcome with rage at how the old women had deceived him. He grabbed the bride, pulled her out of bed, and threw her out the window.
Luckily, there was an arbor beneath the window, so the old woman caught her nightgown on a wooden beam and ended up hanging there.
At that time, three good fairies were strolling through the castle garden. As they passed the arbor, they spotted the old woman dangling from it in her nightgown. They broke into a fit of laughter.
“Well, girls,” said one fairy once she’d laughed enough, “since we’ve had such a good laugh at her expense, we should repay her somehow.”
“That’s true, let’s reward her,” agreed the second, and said, “Abracadabra—may you become the loveliest young girl anyone has ever seen.”
“Abracadabra— may you have a kind and handsome groom who will love you.”
“Abracadabra—may you be a grand lady all your life.”
And the three fairies disappeared.
When the sun rose, the king woke up and remembered what he had done in his fit of anger the night before. He opened the window, hoping it had all been just a nightmare. But what did he see?! There, sitting on the arbor, was the most beautiful young girl.
“What have I done?!” wailed the king, almost tearing his hair out, and quickly tried to think of a way to get the girl back. At last, he grabbed a sheet, tossed it to the girl so she could grab on, and pulled her up to him. He begged her to forgive him for throwing her out the window. And the bride was happy to forgive him. Now they could be happy together.
The remaining two old ladies went back to their little house, where they waited enviously to see if another young king might pass by. Who knows—maybe their wish came true. All we know is that our bride stayed at the castle with the young king, and they were happy together.