I went swimming with my friends, and when we came out of the lake I couldn’t find my clothes!

I knew where I had stashed them. They were dazzling white. There wasn’t any other explanation except that they had been stolen!

My friends stopped helping me when they thought there might be robbers in the woods. They left me huddled in the thicket, naked and weeping.

Then I heard a man’s voice say, “Why do you cry?”

I told him that I had gone swimming and I couldn’t find my clothes and my friends had abandoned me.

“I’ll help you find your clothes if you will come with me,” he said.

There was something in his tone that I trusted. And besides, what choice did I have?

He went straight to the place where my clothes had been hidden. I put them on and followed him. Then he gave me a small horse that ran like the wind. I could have run away, but I didn’t.

Porcelain Maiden in The Golden Blackbird, Green Fairy Book. Image by Louis Icart.

The porcelain maiden is in a very vulnerable position and yet she trusts the young man even though he hasn’t given her much of a choice. What is it about him that wins her trust? What might this situation look like in real life?