the little girl sold with the pears
once a man had a pear tree that used to bear four baskets of pears a year one year, though, it only bore three baskets and a half, while he was supposed to carry four to the king seeing no other way out, he put his youngest daughter into the fourth basket and covered her up with pears and leaves
the baskets were carried into the king's pantry, where the child stayed in hiding underneath the pears but having nothing to eat, she began nibbling on the pears after a while the servants noticed the supply of pears dwindling and also saw the cores "there must be a rat or a mole gnawing on the pears," they said "we shall look inside the baskets" they removed the top and found the little girl
"what are you doing here?" they asked "come with us and work in the king's kitchen"
they called her perina, and she was such a clever little girl that in no time she was doing the housework better than the king's own maidservants she was so pretty no one could help loving her the king's son, who was her age exactly, was always with perina, and they became very fond of each other
