upon a time there was a Princess whose hair was of pure gold. She was the most beautiful maiden on earth and as good as she was beautiful. But she was often sad because her mother had died. Her father, the King, promised her hand to an Ogre, who in return agreed to give the King fifty wagons of silver.
When the Princess heard of her father's bargain she was greatly alarmed, and begged him not to make her so unhappy. But nothing could change his mind. His daughter, however, had quick wits and she said to her father: "Before I marry I must have three bridal gifts a dress as golden as the sun, another as silvery as the moon, and a third as glittering as the stars. I shall want, besides, a coat made of a thousand different kinds of fur. Every animal in the kingdom must give a part of his skin to make that coat."
"There!" she thought, "I have asked for things which he cannot get, and so he will have to give up his wicked plan."
But the King at once began to provide for the bridal gifts. The most skillful weavers in all the land were sent for and ordered to weave the three dresses, one to be as golden as the sun, another as silvery as the moon, and a third as glittering as the stars. Hunters were sent into the forest to kill wild animals and bring home their skins, of which the coat was to be made. At last, when they were all ready, the King laid them before his daughter and said: "Tomorrow your marriage shall take place."
Then the poor Princess saw there was no hope of changing her father's heart, and that her only way of escape from the Ogre was to run away.
In the night, when all the castle was still, she rose from her bed. The sun, moon, and star dresses she folded into a packet so small that she could shut them up in a walnut shell. Then she put on the fur coat, stained her face and hands dark brown with walnut juice, and slipped out into the world.
After traveling all night, she came just at dawn to a large forest. She was very tired, so she crept into a hollow tree and went to sleep. The sun rose higher and higher but still she slept on, and did not awake until nearly noon.
Now on this very day the young King to whom the wood belonged was hunting in the forest. His hounds Came to the tree where the Princess sletpt, and began to sniff about and run round and round the tree, barking eagerly. The King called to his hunters and said: "Look sharp, and see what sort of game hides in that hollow tree."
Two hunters ran to see. When they came back, they told the King that in the hollow tree there was the most wonderful creature ever seen. "It is sound asleep," they said, "and its body is covered with a thousand different kinds of fur."
"Go and see" said the King, "whether you cannot capture it alive. Bind it on the wagon and bring it to the castle."
While the hunters were binding the maiden, she awoke and cried out in terror. "Who and what are you?" they asked.
"I am only a motherless child, driven from my home," she replied. "Have mercy on me, and take me with you!"
"Well," they said, "you may be useful to the cook, little Furball. We will take you with us; you can at least sweep up the ashes."
So they placed her on the wagon and took her to the King's castle. There they showed her a kennel under the steps, where no daylight ever came, and said: "Furball, here you may live and sleep." Then the Princess was sent into the kitchen to fetch the wood, draw the water, stir the fire, pluck the fowls, clean the vegetables, sweep the ashes, and do all the hard, dirty work.
Poor Furball lived for a long time as a servant of servants. She could not see how this life was ever to end, and how she was ever to be a king's daughter again. One day she heard that a festival was to take place in the castle, so she said to the Cook: "May I go out for a little while to see the guests arrive? I promise you no one shall catch Sight of little Furball. "
"Go," the gruff old cook replied, "but in half an hour I shall want you to sweep up the ashes and put the kitchen in order."
Then Furball took her smoky oil lamp, ran into her kennel, threw off the fur coat, and washed the nut stains from her face and hands. Oh, but she was beautiful to see! She opened the nutshell, took out the dress that was golden as the sun, and put it on. It lighted up the kennel so that the lamp was ashamed and its smoky flame went out.

As soon as the Princess was dressed, she slipped around to the front of the castle and entered the great door as a guest. No one recognized her as Furball; the door keepers thought she was a princess from some far country and they quickly told the King of her arrival. He hastened to meet her, bowed low to kiss her hand, and led her out to dance. While they danced he thought in his heart: "Never before have mine eyes seen any maiden so beautiful as this." And as they danced he slipped a gold ring on her finger.
As soon as the dance was over the Sun Princess curtesied to the King, smiled on him so brightly that his eyes were dazzled, and then vanished. The sentinel at the castle gate was Called and questioned, but he had seen no one pass.
The Princess had run like a sun beam to her kennel, taken off the gleaming dress, stained her face and hands, put on her fur Coat, and was again Furball. When she entered the kitchen and reached fore the broom to sweep up the ashes, the cook said: "Let that go until tomorrow; I want you to make some soup for the King. I am too busy. But do not let one of your hairs drop into the soup, or you will get nothing to eat for a week."
Furball made the King's soup as nicely as she could and toasted bread for it. When the soup was ready, she dropped the King's gold ring into the bowl.
After the ball was over, the King called for his supper, and declared he had never tasted better soup in his life. But when the dish was nearly empty, he saw, to his surprise, the gold ring at the bottom. He could not imagine how it came there, so he ordered the cook to appear before him.
The old cook was in a terrible fright when he heard the order. "You must have let a hair fall into the soup," he growled to Furball. "If you have, I shall give you a good beating and nothing to eat for a week."
As soon as the cook came shuf fling into the banquet hall, the King demanded: "Who made this soup?"
"I made it, sire, " faltered the frightened cook.
"That is not true," said the King.
"This soup is much better than any soup of yours."
Then the cook had to confess that Furball made the soup.
"Go and send her to me, com manded the King."
As soon as ever little Furball appeared, all smutty from the kitchen, the King said to her: "Who are you, maiden, and of what mother born?"
"I am a poor, motherless child, a stranger in your kingdom, Sire," she replied.
"How came you in my castle?" he asked again.
"I serve the royal cook for shelter and for food."
"How came this ring in the soup?"
But Furball only looked at him and would not say a word.
When the King found he could learn nothing from her, he sent her away.
A few weeks later there was another festival, and Furball again begged leave from the cook to go and see the guests arrive at the great door of the palace.
"Go," he grunted, "but be sure you come back in a half hour and make for the King that soup he is so fond of."
She promised to obey, and ran quickly into her little kennel. There she washed off the walnut stains, took out of the nutshell her dress silvery as the moon, and put it on.
Again she appeared at the castle door like a foreign princess, and again the King came to meet her. He was so glad to see her that he would dance with no one else, and while they were dancing he pinned a tiny gold spinning wheel in her hair. But at the end of a half hour she disappeared so suddenly that the King could not imagine what had become of her. Like a moon beam she slipped around the castle to her kennel, made herself again the dark-faced, rough-coated little Furball, and went into the kitchen to make the King's soup.
When the soup was ready, she dropped the tiny gold spinning wheel into the bowl. The King ate the soup with great relish, but was amazed to find the gold spinning wheel in the bottom of the bowl. Again he sent for the cook and asked who made the soup, and again the cook had to confess that it was Furball. She was ordered to appear before the King, but when he asked her about the gold spinning wheel, Furball only looked at him and would not say a word.

At the King's third festival every hing happened as before. The cook, when he told her she might go and see the guests arrive, growled:
"Be back in time for the King's soup. I believe you are a witch. Your soup is good. The King says it is better than I can make; it can only be witchcraft that outdoes my cookery."
Furball did not stop to listen. She ran quickly to her little kennel, washed off the nut stains, and this time clad herself in the dress that glittered like the stars. When the King stepped forward quickly to receive her in the hall, as he had done twice before, he thought her the most beautiful maiden he had ever seen in all his life. While he held her hand in the dance, the King contrived to catch a gold hook into her sleeve.
He had given orders that the dancing should continue longer than usual, but the minute the music stopped Furball slipped her hand frdm the King's and was gone like a shooting star.
She was out of breath when she reached her kennel under the steps. She had stayed away longer than a half hour, she knew, and there was not time to take off her star dress. She threw her fur coat over it, and began to stain her face and hands. But she was in such a hurry that one finger remained white. When she reached the kitchen she made the King's soup and dropped into it the gold hook.
The King, when he found the small gold hook at the bottom of his bowl, sent at once for Furball, and as she entered the room he saw one white finger shining out from her little brown hand. He seized the hand and held her fast, while she struggled so to get free that the fur coat fell open and the glittering star dress came to view.
The King drew off that coat of a thousand furs, and as he did so a flood of wonderful golden hair fell over the maiden's shoulders. She wiped the soot and stains from her face and hands, and stood before the King as the most glorious Princess on earth.
"You shall be my bride," said the young King, "for yours is the beauty of the sun and the moon and the stars."
Then the Princess told him all her story, and he loved her more than before. The next day the wedding took place, the cook made the best bridal soup he could, and the King and his beautiful Queen lived happy ever after.