Bullrushes beside Long Lake near Llansantffraed-in-Elwel in Powys, Wales.
Part 1 of 2
A WEALTHY man was determined to find out which of his three daughters loved him best. So he asked the first how much she loved him, and she replied ‘Why, as I love my life!’ and the second said, ‘More than all the world!’
But the third said, ‘As raw meat loves salt.’
Now this did not sound at all respectful, so he turned her out of the house.
Thinking her fine clothes would bring trouble, she hastily made herself a hooded cloak from rushes, and then found employment as a scullery-maid in a grand house some miles away.
One night, there was a ball on the neighbouring estate. Some of the servants walked over and peeped into the ballroom, but ‘Cap o’ Rushes’, as Cook had nicknamed her, said she would rather go to bed.
So it was next morning before she heard how a mysterious beauty in fine clothes had danced three times with their own Master’s son – and quite captured his heart!
Précis
A father asked his daughter how much she loved him, and when he did not undertand the reply turned her out of the house. Disguised in a cloak of rushes (earning the nickname Cap o’ Rushes), she went to work as a maid. Soon after her arrival, the son of the house fell for a mysterious beauty at a ball. (60 / 60 words)
Part Two
The Great Hall in the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, near Saint Petersburg, the summer palace of the Tsars.
NO one in that house knew who the bewitching young thing was who had danced with the Master’s son, nor that, in despair at parting, he had given her his golden ring as a keepsake. No one but Cap o’ Rushes; she knew.
As for the Master’s son, he became listless and his food lay untouched. The kind-hearted cook resolved to make him some gruel, but Cap o’ Rushes asked if she could do it. When no one was watching, she plopped the golden ring into it, and it sank to the bottom.
There the young man found it with his last spoonful.
He summoned the cook. ‘Who made this gruel?’ he asked, and the cook cautiously admitted deputising Cap o’ Rushes.
‘Who are you?’ he asked the maid, when she stood before him, ‘and where did you get this ring?’ In reply she took off the hooded gown of rushes. And the pale young gentleman’s heart leapt: for he knew his captivating dance-partner at once.
Précis
The son of the house, not knowing who his dance-partner was, gave her his ring to remember him by, and promptly pined himself into a decline. Taking pity, Cap o’ Rushes revealed herself to him by letting him discover the ring in his food and trace it back to her; and soon they were to be married. (57 / 60 words)