It was sad that no one ever believed Princess Veracity. She enjoyed telling tall stories.
“Last night, a witch came and turned me into a milkmaid,” she announced one day, “I have been to a farm early morning and had to milk three cows there.”
Another time she said she had flown to an island and bought a great big diamond there. Once she said she had ridden on a winged horse to Iceland. She had even been to the Kingdom of the Moon.
Her stories kept getting wilder. Everyone was tired of listening to her stupid stories. The King and the Queen tried to tell her, but she thought that telling stories was a great way to charm people. She did not know the difference between telling lies and telling stories.
A wicked witch who had been watching the Princess was waiting for a chance to get hold of her.
“She’s just the right person,” cackled the witch, “Even if she tells them the truth, people will not believe her!”
The witch had a grudge against the King and the Queen because they had not invited her to their wedding. She decided to take revenge on them through Veracity.
Transforming herself into a plump sweet woman, selling pins, clips, brooches and ribbons, she went to Princess Veracity and offered her wares. Veracity liked some clips and a brooch and bought them. The golden brooch, shaped like a little broomstick, was enchanted and the witch could control her through it.
That night, the witch took Veracity to a forest and made her work hard in her cottage. In the morning, she sent her back to the palace. When Veracity told her friends about the night, no one believed her. Every night, the witch would take the Princess and make her serve her in the cottage. She had to chop wood and kindle the fire, sweep the floor, wash the dishes and cook. And all this was real, but no one believed Veracity.
One day, the Queen noticed that Veracity had fallen asleep at the breakfast table. She sent her off to bed. The next day, she found her sleeping when she should have been studying. She fell asleep in the carriage, in the drawing room, in church! It was all rather puzzling. The doctor came and examined the Princess and found nothing wrong with her. But she continued to fall asleep every day.
The King and the Queen consulted the ministers. Finally, it was announced that anyone who helped to find out the cause for the strange sleeping sickness of the princess would win her hand in marriage.
Everyone tried to discover the cause, but failed. One day, a young man who was a woodcutter came to the palace to try his luck.
He asked the King and the Queen to permit him to watch the Princess day and night for a few days, hidden in her room. They agreed and hid the woodcutter behind a large chest in her room.
He watched the Princess fall asleep. Then, as if enchanted, she was carried away on a broomstick. He waited and at dawn saw her return on the broomstick. But he had no idea where she had gone. That day, he went to an old woman in the city whom he knew. She could do magic and he told her all about the princess.
“I must follow her, but I can’t fly!” he said.
The old woman gave him a pair of wooden shoes, saying, “Wear these, and they’ll take you wherever you want to go.”
The woodcutter took the shoes and returned to the palace to keep watch. That night when the Princess fell asleep, he put on the shoes and waited. As soon as the broomstick took her, he followed her. He saw her go into the witch’s cottage and work there all night.
When Princess returned, she was too exhausted to do anything but sleep. He had discovered the secret of her ‘sleeping sickness’ but had to show the truth to the King and the Queen. He also had to break the enchantment of the wicked witch.
The woodcutter saw that the Princess always wore a brooch. He chatted with her at breakfast, admiring the brooch and she took it off to show it to him. He looked at it closely and while her attention was distracted, he slipped the brooch into his pocket.
That night, the broomstick came, but since the Princess was not wearing the brooch, she continued to sleep. The woodcutter climbed onto the broomstick wearing his wooden shoes and reached the cottage in the forest.
The witch screamed when she saw him and ran at him with a large chopper. But the woodcutter slew her with his axe and returned to the palace using his wooden shoes.
He went to the King and the Queen in the morning and told them the whole story. They saw the Princess recovering from her illness and saw the witch’s cottage in the forest. Princess Veracity married the handsome young woodcutter and never told stories again.
