maid; but in spite of her youth and beauty she was very badly treated,
and suffered many things. One evening, when she was spinning flax, and
had worked her little white hands weary, she heard a rustling beside her
and a cry of joy. Then she saw a handsome youth standing beside her; who
knelt down at her feet and kissed the little weary white hands.

'I am the Prince,' he said, 'who you in your goodness, when I was
wandering about in the shape of a black crow, freed from the most awful
torments. Come now to my castle with me, and let us live there happily
together.'

So they went to the castle where they had both endured so much. But when
they reached it, it was difficult to believe that it was the same, for
it had all been rebuilt and done up again. And there they lived for a
hundred years, a hundred years of joy and happiness.

HOW SIX MEN TRAVELLED THROUGH THE WIDE WORLD

There was once upon a time a man who understood all sorts of arts; he
served in the war, and bore himself bravely and well; but when the war
was over, he got his discharge, and set out on his travels with three
farthings of his pay in his pocket. 'Wait,' he said; 'that does not
please me; only let me find the right people, and the King shall yet
give me all the treasures of his kingdom.' He strode angrily into the
forest, and there he saw a man standing who had uprooted six trees as
if they were straws. He said to him, 'Will you be my servant and travel
with me?'

'Yes,' he answered; 'but first of all I will take this little bundle
of sticks home to my mother,' and he took one of the trees and wound
it round the other five, raised the bundle on his shoulders and bore it
off. Then he came back and went with his master, who said, 'We two ought
to be able to travel through the wide world!' And when they had gone a
little way they came upon a hunter, who was on his knees, his gun on his
shoulder, aiming at something. The master said to him, 'Hunter, what are
you aiming at?'

He answered, 'Two miles from this place sits a fly on a branch of an
oak; I want to shoot out its left eye.'

'Oh, go with me,' said the man; 'if we three are together we shall
easily travel through the wide world.'

The hunter agreed and went with him, and they came to seven windmills
whose sails were going round quite fast, and yet there was not a breath
of wind, nor was a leaf moving. The man said, 'I don't know what is
turning those windmills; there is not the sli