Listen HERE

In the last episode, True heard the animals telling stories about special dew on tree leaves, and a frog with a piece of bread in its mouth, and a gold chain under the ground. So now True knows these secrets. What’s he going to do? In this episode, part 3, a couple words might be unfamiliar. A hawk is a big bird and downcast means sad. Let’s get back to the story.

After they were gone, True fell asleep while sitting in the tree. But when the birds began to sing at dawn, he woke up. He took the dew from the leaves and rubbed his eyes with it. So, he was able to see.

Then he went straight to the king's palace, and he begged for work. He was hired on the spot. One day the king came out into the palace yard, and when he had walked around a bit, he wanted to drink water. It was a hot day, and the king was very thirsty. But when they poured him a glass, it was so muddy, dirty, and smelly that the king became furious.

"I don't think there's a man in my whole kingdom who has such bad water in his yard, and I still bring it in pipes from far away over the hills," cried out the king.

True said to the King, "If you let me have some men help me dig up this great stone under the middle of the yard, you would have good water and plenty of it."

Well! The king was willing enough, and they had barely got the stone out and dug under it a while when a jet of water shot out high up into the air, and clearer water was not to be found in the whole kingdom.

A little while later, when the king was out in the yard of his palace again, a big hawk was chasing a chicken. All the king's men began to clap their hands and shout out, "There he goes!" "There he goes!" The king got out his gun tried to shoot the hawk, but he couldn't see that far, so he was full of sadness.

"If only there was anyone who could tell me a cure for my eyes; because I think I will soon go blind!"

"I can tell you how," said True, and then he told the king what he had done to cure his own eyes. The king set off that very afternoon to the big tree. His eyes were fixed as soon as he rubbed them with the dew from the leaves in the morning.

From that moment, there was no one closer to the King than True, and he had to be with him wherever he went, both at home and abroad.

So one day, as they were walking together in the orchard, the King said, "I can't figure out why I work so hard in the orchard, and yet I can't get one of the trees to grow even a crab apple."

"Well, well!" said True, "if I may have what is buried and twisted around your orchard, and men to dig it up, your orchard will be fruitful enough."

Yes! The king was quite willing, so True got men and began to dig, and at last, he dug up the whole gold chain. Now True was a rich man; far richer than the king himself, but still the king was happy, for his orchard gave him so much fruit that the boughs of the trees hung down to the ground. They were the sweetest apples and pears anyone had ever tasted.

On another day, the king and True were walking and talking together when the princess passed them, and the king was quite downcast when he saw her.

"Isn't it a pity that so lovely a princess as mine cannot speak or hear," he said to True.