oof, twisting their long necks and flapping their
wings, but no one heard them or saw them, so they at last flew away,
high up in the clouds, and over the wide world they sped till they came
to a thick, dark wood, which stretched far away to the seashore.

Poor little Eliza was alone in the peasant's room playing with a green
leaf, for she had no other playthings. She pierced a hole in the leaf,
and when she looked through it at the sun she seemed to see her
brothers' clear eyes, and when the warm sun shone on her cheeks she
thought of all the kisses they had given her.

One day passed just like another. Sometimes the winds rustled through
the leaves of the rosebush and whispered to the roses, "Who can be more
beautiful than you?" And the roses would shake their heads and say,
"Eliza is." And when the old woman sat at the cottage door on Sunday and
read her hymn book, the wind would flutter the leaves and say to the
book, "Who can be more pious than you?" And then the hymn book would
answer, "Eliza." And the roses and the hymn book told the truth.

When she was fifteen she returned home, but because she was so beautiful
the witch-queen became full of spite and hatred toward her. Willingly
would she have turned her into a swan like her brothers, but she did not
dare to do so for fear of the king.

Early one morning the queen went into the bathroom; it was built of
marble and had soft cushions trimmed with the most beautiful tapestry.
She took three toads with her, and kissed them, saying to the first,
"When Eliza comes to bathe seat yourself upon her head, that she may
become as stupid as you are." To the second toad she said, "Place
yourself on her forehead, that she may become as ugly as you are, and
that her friends may not know her." "Rest on her heart," she whispered
to the third; "then she will have evil inclinations and suffer because
of them." So she put the toads into the clear water, which at once
turned green. She next called Eliza and helped her undress and get into
the bath.

As Eliza dipped her head under the water one of the toads sat on her
hair, a second on her forehead, and a third on her breast. But she did
not seem to notice them, and when she rose from the water there were
three red poppies floating upon it. Had not the creatures been venomous
or had they not been kissed by the witch, they would have become red
roses. At all events they became flowers, because they had rested on
Eliza's head and