under her arm and went the path down the knowe.
Then said I to myself, "It would be well to go after my foster-sisters
for they might meet misfortune on the road." So I said to my
foster-mother, "Give me the third cake on the griddle until I go after
my foster-sisters."

"Will you have half of the cake and my blessing or the whole of the cake
without my blessing?" said she to me.

"The half of the cake and your blessing, mother," said I.

She cut the cake in two with a black-handled knife and gave me the even
half of it. Then said she:--

May the old sea's
Seven Daughters
They who spin
Life's longest threads,
Protect and guard you!

She put salt in my hand then, and put the Little Red Hen under my arm,
and I went off.

I went on then till I came in sight of Baun and Deelish. Just as I
caught up on them I heard one say to the other, "This ugly, freckled
girl will disgrace us if she comes with us." They tied my hands and feet
with a rope they found on the road and left me in a wood.

I got the rope off my hands and feet and ran and ran until I came in
sight of them again. And when I was coming on them I heard one say to
the other, "This ugly, freckled girl will claim relationship with us
wherever we go, and we will get no good man to marry us." They laid hold
of me again and put me in a lime-kiln, and put beams across it, and put
heavy stones on the beams. But my Little Red Hen showed me how to get
out of the lime-kiln. Then I ran and I ran until I caught up with Baun
and Deelish again.

"Let her come with us this evening," said one to the other, "and
to-morrow we'll find some way of getting rid of her."

The night was drawing down now, and we had to look for a house that
would give us shelter. We saw a hut far off the road and we went to the
broken door. It was the house of the Hags of the Long Teeth. We asked
for shelter. They showed us a big bed in the dormer-room, and they told
us we could have supper when the porridge was boiled.

The three Hags sat round the fire with their heads together. Baun and
Deelish were in a corner plaiting their hair, but the Little Red Hen
murmured that I was to listen to what the Hags said.

"We will give them to Crom Duv in the morning" one said. And another
said, "I have put a sleeping-pin in the pillow that will be under each,
and they will not waken."

When I heard what they said I wanted to think of what we could do to
make our escap