Once upon a time, a poor woodcutter lived with his wife and three daughters in a little hut on the borders of a great forest.
One morning, as he was going to his work, he said to his wife, 'Let our eldest daughter bring me my lunch into the wood; and so that she shall not lose her way, I will take a bag of millet with me and sprinkle the seed on the path.'
When the sun was high, the girl set out with a basin of soup. But the birds had long ago picked up all the millet, and she lost her way. She wandered until nightfall, frightened by the rustling trees and hooting owls. Seeing a distant light, she approached a house and knocked.
A gruff voice called, 'Come in!' Inside, an old gray-haired man sat at a table, his long white beard flowing down. By the stove lay a hen, a cock, and a brindled cow. The girl asked for lodging.
The man asked the beasts:
Pretty cock, Pretty hen,
And you, pretty brindled cow,
What do you say now?
'Duks,' they answered. The man told the girl to cook supper. She found plenty of food in the kitchen, cooked a meal, and ate with the old man, forgetting the animals. When she asked for a bed, the beasts replied:
You have eaten with him,
You have drunk with him,
Of us you have not thought,
Sleep then as you ought!
The old man sent her upstairs. Once she was asleep, he shook his head, opened a trapdoor, and let her fall into the cellar.
The next day, the same fate befell the second daughter, who was sent with lentils as a path marker, which were also eaten by birds.
On the third day, the youngest daughter was sent with peas. The wood pigeons ate the peas, and she too became lost. At night, she found the same house. When the old man asked his beasts for permission to let her stay, they again said, 'Duks.'
This time, the maiden first stroked the animals. After cooking supper, she said, 'Shall I have plenty while the good beasts have nothing?' She fetched barley for the fowl and hay for the cow, and gave them water. Only after tending them did she eat. When she suggested resting, the animals replied:
You have eaten with us,
You have drunk with us,
You have tended us right,
So we wish you good night.
That night, at midnight, the house shook violently and then fell silent. In the morning, the maiden awoke in a splendid royal chamber. A handsome young man entered and explained: he was a prince, cursed by a witch to live as an old man with his three servants transformed into animals. The spell was broken by a maiden kind to both men and beasts.
He sent for her parents for a wedding feast. When the maiden asked about her sisters, the prince said they were in the cellar and would be made to serve a charcoal burner in the forest until they learned never to let animals go hungry again.