d to-night, while she is asleep,
I shall come and cut off her head. Take care to lie at the farthest side
of the bed, and push her to the outside."

And it would have been all over with the poor girl, if she had not been
standing in a corner near and heard it all. She did not dare to go
outside the door the whole day long, and when bed-time came the other
one got into bed first, so as to lie on the farthest side; but when she
had gone to sleep, the step-daughter pushed her towards the outside, and
took the inside place next the wall. In the night the old woman came
sneaking; in her right hand she held an axe, and with her left she felt
for the one who was lying outside, and then she heaved up the axe with
both hands, and hewed the head off her only daughter.

When she had gone away, the other girl got up and went to her
sweetheart's, who was called Roland, and knocked at his door. When he
came to her, she said,

"Listen, dear Roland, we must flee away in all haste; my step-mother
meant to put me to death, but she has killed her only child instead.
When the day breaks, and she sees what she has done, we are lost."

"But I advise you," said Roland, "to bring away her magic wand with you;
otherwise we cannot escape her when she comes after to overtake us." So
the maiden fetched the magic wand, and she took up the head of her
step-sister and let drop three drops of blood on the ground,--one by the
bed, one in the kitchen, and one on the steps. Then she hastened back to
her sweetheart.

When the old witch got up in the morning, she called out to her
daughter, to give her the apron, but no daughter came. Then she cried
out, "Where art thou?"

"Here, at the steps, sweeping!" answered one of the drops of blood.

The old woman went out, but she saw nobody at the steps, and cried
again, "Where art thou?"

"Here in the kitchen warming myself," cried the second drop of blood.

So she went into the kitchen and found no one. Then she cried again,
"Where art thou?"

"Oh, here in bed fast asleep!" cried the third drop of blood.

Then the mother went into the room, and up to the bed, and there lay her
only child, whose head she had cut off herself. The witch fell into a
great fury, rushed to the window, for from it she could see far and
wide, and she caught sight of her step-daughter, hastening away with her
dear Roland.

"It will be no good to you," cried she, "if you get ever so far away,
you cannot escape me." Then she