A husband and wife lived in a hut near a forest. They had two daughters. One of the girls was the husband's daughter whereas the other girl was the wife's daughter.
The man once took his own daughter to the forest and there both of them cut the wood. They worked all day and it had been raining very heavily. So when they returned home at night the father and daughter were completely wet and cold. That was when the husband unhappily remembered that he had left his axe behind in the forest. If he left his axe there in the night, it would become rusty and useless. So he had to bring it back home.
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He turned to his wife. “I have dropped my axe in the forest. Can you please get your daughter to go and bring it?” My daughter has worked all day in the forest and she is very tired.”
The wife was annoyed and shook her head “You should send your daughter to bring the axe. She is already wet and cold. A little more rain would not do any harm to the girl. If my daughter went out she would surely catch a cold.”
The man realized that it was useless to argue with his wife and he sent his own girl to the forest to bring the axe back.
The man's daughter was brave and beautiful. She did not shy away from this task and she walked on in the forest. The path was dark and difficult, and her dress was torn by the twigs of the trees but that did not stop her. She reached the spot where she and her father had been working and there she found the axe.
To her surprise, three little doves were sitting on the handle of the axe. The three doves looked very sad. The girl realized that it was because the doves were hungry.
The girl pulled out some bread, which she had saved from her own dinner and offered it to the three birds.
After the three birds started pecking the bread she took the axe. “I must take the axe back to my house. Or my stepmother would scold me.”
She waved at the three doves, which were now smiling at her after having eaten to their fill. “Goodbye!”
The doves looked at each other. “That is a good girl.” One of the doves said, “I was very weak before. But now I would like to show her how grateful I am.”
“Let us give her a wreath of flowers that would never fade as long as she wears them.” The second dove said.
“Let there be tiny singing birds sitting in the flowers of the wreath,” said the third bird.
The first dove was very happy with what the other two doves had said.
As soon as this happened, the words of the three doves came to pass.
When the girl stepped inside her own cottage, a wreath of rose buds appeared on her head and a crowd of little birds were singing around her.
Everyone in the cottage saw her and they all realized that the kind girl looked even more lovely.
However, the stepmother and the other girl became wild with envy on seeing this.
Adapted from Scandinavian Folk Tales
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