The small bird with the golden egg

Once upon a time, there was a gardener who had two sons. One day in May, as he was working in his garden, he noticed a small bird of a kind he had never seen before.
- This is one beautiful bird! he said to himself; if I could only catch it!
He managed to catch the small bird, and he put it in a cage, with the intention to offer it as a present to his lord. In its cage, the bird laid an egg, which was yellow as gold.
On the following day, the gardener’s wife had to go to town, to bring some eggs to her lord. As she was one egg short to have a full three dozen, she took the egg of the small bird and put it among the others; then, she went to town. When the lord saw the gold yellow egg, he was surprised, and he said to the gardener’s wife:
- What’s this egg?
- Well, My lord, I was one egg short to complete my three dozen, so I took this yellow egg, which was laid by a small bird that we have at our house.
- How did you get this bird?
- My husband caught it in the garden.
- Tell your husband to come and see me, next Sunday, and to bring me the small bird.
- I will tell him, my lord…
On the sunday morning, the gardener went to town, carrying the bird in the cage. He also took his two young sons along with him. As soon as the lord saw the small bird, he exclaimed:
- God, what a beautiful bird! But, what is it that I can see, written around its head?
And then, the lord read, written around the bird’s head, that he who would eat its heart would find, every morning, one hundred gold coins under his pillow.
- Hey! He thought, what a wonder!
You ought to give me this bird! he said to the gardener.
- Gladly, my lord, since you like it.
Time for the mass had come and before going to the church, the lord recommended to his cook to get him the small bird ready for his dinner, and to be careful not to lose its heart, or to let it be eaten by the cat, because it was the very best piece. The lord then went to mass, and the gardener went with him. His two sons had gone to see the boats, on the wharf. When they’d had enough walking, they went back to the lord’s place. Stepping into the kitchen, they found only the cook was there. On the table, they saw the small plucked bird and on a dish, on the side, was its heart. The two boys were called Francis and Alan. Francis, when he saw the heart of the small bird on the dish, mistook it for a red cherry and swallowed it. And then, they both went out to play in the garden.

Extract from Tales from the folklore of lower Britanny vol. 3 by F.M. Luzel, 1887.