put on her boots, which took her an
hour's walk at every stride, and it was not long before she had
overtaken them. But the maiden, when she saw the old woman striding up,
changed, by means of the magic wand, her dear Roland into a lake, and
herself into a duck swimming upon it. The witch stood on the bank and
threw in crumbs of bread, and took great pains to decoy the duck towards
her, but the duck would not be decoyed, and the old woman was obliged
to go back in the evening disappointed. Then the maiden and her dear
Roland took again their natural shapes, and travelled on the whole night
through until daybreak. Then the maiden changed herself into a beautiful
flower, standing in the middle of a hedge of thorns, and her dear Roland
into a fiddle-player. It was not long before the witch came striding up,
and she said to the musician,

"Dear musician, will you be so kind as to reach that pretty flower for
me?"

"Oh yes," said he, "I will strike up a tune to it."

Then as she crept quickly up to the hedge to break off the flower, for
she knew well who it was, he began to play, and whether she liked it or
not, she was obliged to dance, for there was magic in the tune. The
faster he played the higher she had to jump, and the thorns tore her
clothes, and scratched and wounded her, and he did not cease playing
until she was spent, and lay dead.

So now they were saved, and Roland said,

"I will go to my father and prepare for the wedding."

"And I will stay here," said the maiden, "and wait for you, and so that
no one should know me, I will change myself into a red milestone." So
away went Roland, and the maiden in the likeness of a stone waited in
the field for her beloved.

But when Roland went home he fell into the snares of another maiden, who
wrought so, that he forgot his first love.

And the poor girl waited a long time, but at last, seeing that he did
not come, she was filled with despair, and changed herself into a
flower, thinking "Perhaps some one in passing will put his foot upon me
and crush me."

But it happened that a shepherd, tending his flock, saw the flower, and
as it was so beautiful, he gathered it, took it home with him, and put
it in his chest. From that time everything went wonderfully well in the
shepherd's house. When he got up in the morning, all the work was
already done; the room was swept, the tables and benches rubbed, fire
kindled on the hearth, and water ready drawn; and when he ca