by Jitka Krausová

Once upon a time, there was a big beautiful kingdom, where a clever king and a queen ruled. They had three daughters. All people in this kingdom were happy and satisfied. The queen died and the king and his daughters stayed alone. When the king was too old to rule, he had to choose one of the three princesses to be a new queen, but he didn`t know, which one. He asked them: “How much do you love me?” The oldest daughter said: “I love you as much as I like diamonds.” The median daughter said: “I love you as much as I like gold.” And Mary, the youngest princess said: “I love you as I like salt.” The king was suprised. He screamed: “You love me like ordinary salt?” And he kicked Mary out. Then he forbade his cooks using salt, because he hated salt and Mary too. All people had to bring all their salt to the king. They had to cook sweets only, when they wanted to eat.
Mary was unhappy and cried. She got lost for a long time. Finally she found a little cottage in the dark forest. A nice old magic woman lived there. Mary stayed with the old woman for a few days, cooked and cleaned the cottage.
Meanwhile the king ate only sweets. It was good, but not for a long time. He found his mistake and realized that Mary was wise. He said: ”Mary must be the queen!“ He started to look for her.
Finally Mary came home and brought a small magic bag full of salt, which was never empty. The king gave salt back to all the people and proclaimed Mary to be the new queen of the kingdom.