Once upon a time there was a king who loved melons very much and thatls why he was called King Melon. His gardeners tried for years to grow melons. The king himself, who loved to watch the plants sprout and raise their creeping stems out of the ground, would sow the seeds brought over from far away places and would patiently care for them, but the melons that sprouted would rot in the field before ripening. The queen, although she shared the kingls concern with the melons, wanted to have a baby, especially because she was not that young anymore and she thought she would have no one to comfort her in her old age.
One day, the kingls page, Butterbur, could not wake up early in the morning to draw the melon-painted curtains from the kingls bedchamber so that the powerful sunlight would not disturb his master, even though the big cricket s’eeping under his pillow chirped and chirped. The king woke up with the hot rays on his face and saw the bare windows and the sun ruthlessly pouring its light through the crystal windows.
-“Butterbuuuuuur!” The page was s’eeping in his c’oset, dead tired from watering the melons all day long. He jumped up and made haste to the kingls chamber. He understood at once why he had been called.
-“Forgiveness, Your Highness, I couldnlt wake up because…”
-“Shut up, you fool! If something like this ever happens again, I will send you to the woods to raise the pigs and Illl bring Cutterbur, the keeper of the pigs, to take your place!”
Butterbur drew the curtains, painted with rows of watermelons, and walked out wistfully.
