The tenth daughter

If a mother gives birth to ten sons in a row, so there is not even one daughter among them, the tenth son has got no mind and runs away from home. He would not stay, even if people were always to serve him, something would always push him further. In a wealthy farmhouse the parents had nine daughters but no sons. They wished with all their hearts that they would get at least one son, but their big wishes and dreams were in vain. The tenth baby they had, was also a girl, a cute little girl, prettier than all the nine before her. The parents loved the girl the same or even more than the other daughters. But the mother cried a lot of times in silence, when she thought, that the child would have to go away because she was the tenth daughter and the custom is that the tenth baby has to go into the world. The child asked the mother :
  Mother, why are your eyes always drowning in tears, when you are giving me bread ? The mother stayed silent.

When the youngest daughter was seven years old, a bird flew on the window and carried a gold ring in its beak. The bird started singing : -Bake, bake, mother a cake, a travel cake. Put my ring in the cake. Cut the cake in ten pieces, and give them to your daughters. Which ever daughter gets the gold ring will have to leave. The mother did what the bird said. She baked a cake, cried and put the gold ring in the middle. Then she cut the cake and gave each daughter a piece. And then she asked which one got the gold ring. They all replied : -Not me ! Only the youngest daughter stayed silent and held the ring in her hands. Then she spoke and said : -My time has come. She made herself a bag and changed her silk dress to an old and tarred one.

.-Goodbye, father, goodbye, mother, goodbye, sisters ! I will return in seven years when my oldest sister is going to be married. Then she went into the world. She spent her first night in a dark forest. She sat under a tree, to spend the night there. The tree speaks to her : -There is going to be a thundery night and the first lightning is going to strike me. Leave me and go somewhere else. Desetnica comes to another tree and says : -I am going to spend the night here. The tree speaks to her : -Go somewhere else, Desetnica, when the lightning strikes the second time, it will strike me. She goes to the third tree, which tells her : -Rest easily, Desetnica, under my branches. Do not be scared of anything. After seven years Desetnica returned to her home. Everything was very beautiful there, but she was barefoot and her clothes were torn. She asked her mother for shelter, but she replied : -I can not give you shelter. Look at yourself. You are all dirty and torn ! I have to get my ninth daughter married, and you do not belong among us. Desetnica begs again : -Dear mother, allow me, to spend the night here. But the mother does not recognise her and does not reply to her requests. Then Desetnica bids her farewell : -May God protect you, mother, God protect my nine sisters ! God protect my dear home, I have seen you once again, all dirty and torn. Desetnica goes around the world and never returns again. Her mother falls, faints and dies.