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There was once a king in Ireland, and he had three daughters, and
very nice princesses they were. And one day, when they and their
father were walking on the lawn, the king began to joke with
them, and to ask them whom they would like to be married to.
'I'll have the king of Ulster for a husband,' says one; 'and I'll
have the king of Munster,' says another; 'and,' says the
youngest, 'I'll have no husband but the Brown Bear of Norway.'
For a nurse of hers used to be telling her of an enchanted prince
that she called by that name, and she fell in love with him, and
his name was the first name on her tongue, for the very night
before she was dreaming of him. Well, one laughed, and another
laughed, and they joked with the princess all the rest of the
evening. But that very night she woke up out of her sleep in a
great hall that was lighted up with a thousand lamps; the richest
carpets were on the floor, and the walls were covered with cloth
of gold and silver, and the place was full of grand company, and
the very beautiful prince she saw in her dreams was there, and it
wasn't a moment till he was on one knee before her, and telling
her how much he loved her, and asking her wouldn't she be his
queen. Well, she hadn't the heart to refuse him, and married they
were the same evening.
'Now, my darling,' says he, when they were left by themselves,
'you must know that I am under enchantment. A sorceress, that had
a beautiful daughter, wished me for her son-in-law; but the
mother got power over me, and when I refused to wed her daughter
she made me take the form of a bear by day, and I was to continue
so till a lady would marry me of her own free will, and endure
five years of great trials after.'
Well, when the princess woke in the morning, she missed her
husband from her side, and spent the day very sadly. But as soon
as the lamps were lighted in the grand hall, where she was
sitting on a sofa covered with silk, the folding doors flew open,
and he was sitting by her side the next minute. So they spent
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Fairytales 
