xt minute. So they spent another happy evening, but he warned her that
whenever she began to tire of him, or ceased to have faith in him, they
would be parted for ever, and he'd be obliged to marry the witch's
daughter.

She got used to find him absent by day, and they spent a happy
twelvemonth together, and at last a beautiful little boy was born; and
happy as she was before, she was twice as happy now, for she had her
child to keep her company in the day when she couldn't see her husband.

At last, one evening, when herself, and himself, and her child were
sitting with a window open because it was a sultry night, in flew an
eagle, took the infant's sash in his beak, and flew up in the air with
him. She screamed, and was going to throw herself out through the window
after him, but the prince caught her, and looked at her very seriously.
She bethought of what he said soon after their marriage, and she stopped
the cries and complaints that were on her tongue. She spent her days
very lonely for another twelvemonth, when a beautiful little girl was
sent to her. Then she thought to herself she'd have a sharp eye about
her this time; so she never would allow a window to be more than a few
inches open.

But all her care was in vain. Another evening, when they were all so
happy, and the prince dandling the baby, a beautiful greyhound stood
before them, took the child out of the father's hand, and was out of the
door before you could wink. This time she shouted and ran out of the
room, but there were some of the servants in the next room, and all
declared that neither child nor dog passed out. She felt, somehow, as if
it was her husband's fault, but still she kept command over herself, and
didn't once reproach him.

When the third child was born she would hardly allow a window or a door
to be left open for a moment; but she wasn't the nearer to keep the
child to herself. They were sitting one evening by the fire, when a lady
appeared standing by them. The princess opened her eyes in a great
fright and stared at her, and while she was doing so, the lady wrapped a
shawl round the baby that was sitting in its father's lap, and either
sank through the ground with it or went up through the wide chimney.
This time the mother kept her bed for a month.

'My dear,' said she to her husband, when she was beginning to recover,
'I think I'd feel better if I was to see my father and mother and
sisters once more. If you give me leave to