"
"As for you, my young lady," continued the king, "I know you will
ask no better reward for your trouble than the pleasure of
carrying to this poor widow my order for her son's immediate
discharge. Let me see if you can write as well as you can read.
Take this pen, and write as I dictate." He then dictated an
order, which Ernestine wrote, and he signed. Calling one of his
guards, he bade him go with the girl and see that the order was
obeyed.
How much happiness was Ernestine the means of bestowing through
her good elocution, united to the happy circumstance that brought
it to the knowledge of the king! First there were her poor
neighbors, to whom she could give instruction and entertainment.
Then there was the poor widow who sent the petition, and who not
only regained her son, but received through Ernestine an order
for him to paint the king's likeness; so that the poor boy soon
rose to great distinction, and had more orders than he could
attend to. Words could not express his gratitude, and that of his
mother, to the little girl.
And Ernestine had, moreover, the satisfaction of aiding her
father to rise in the world, so that he became the king's chief
gardener.
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