The Three Husbands on Trial

There was once on a time a young princess who wished to marry, and was acquainted with three brothers who were all equally handsome. When it came time to give preference to one of them, she had to make a choice, but she could not decide to give her hand to any one of them. So she asked her father to bring them about and set them in front of her. The King invited the brothers to the palace, and told his daughter, “set some cheese before them, and make a choice.”

The brothers then arrived and stood in front of her. Now one of the brothers had a servant who was industrious, who cleaned them and groomed them finely, and she liked him very much. When he was offered the slice of cheese, however, he swallowed the choose with the rind on; the second had a beautiful robe that he had made for himself, and had wooed the young princess with his charm, but he cut the rind so quickly that he left much good cheese with it, and he threw that away also; the third saw that the young princess was not pleased with his brothers, and asked how “Ah, how would I eat cheese, to take thee for my wife?” And she said, “cut neither too much nor too little.” So he peeled the rind off carefully, and she watched how he ate it. Then the king said, “Take the third for thy wife.” This he did, and lived contentedly and happily with her.