l take her with me. I will be her
mother, and henceforth she shall be under my care." The woodcutter
consented, and calling his child gave her to the Angel, who carried her
to the land of Happiness. There everything went happily; she ate sweet
bread and drank pure milk; her clothes were gold, and her playfellows
were beautiful children. When she became fourteen years old, the
Guardian Angel called her to her side and said, "My dear child, I have
a long journey for thee. Take these keys of the thirteen doors of the
land of Happiness; twelve of them thou mayest open, and behold the
glories therein; but the thirteenth, to which this little key belongs,
thou art forbidden to open. Beware! if thou dost disobey, harm will
befall thee."

The maiden promised to be obedient, and, when the Guardian Angel was
gone, began her visits to the mansions of Happiness. Every day one
door was unclosed, until she had seen all the twelve. In each mansion
there sat an angel, surrounded by a bright light. The maiden rejoiced
at the glory, and the child who accompanied her rejoiced with her. Now
the forbidden door alone remained. A great desire possessed the maiden
to know what was hidden there; and she said to the child, "I will not
quite open it, nor will I go in, but I will only unlock the door so
that we may peep through the chink." "No, no," said the child; "that
will be a sin. The Guardian Angel has forbidden it, and misfortune
would soon fall upon us."

At this the maiden was silent, but the desire still remained in her
heart, and tormented her continually, so that she had no peace. One
day, however, all the children were away, and she thought, "Now I am
alone and can peep in, no one will know what I do;" so she found the
keys, and, taking them in her hand, placed the right one in the lock
and turned it round. Then the door sprang open, and she saw three
angels sitting on a throne, surrounded by a great light. The maiden
remained a little while standing in astonishment; and then, putting her
finger in the light, she drew it back and it was turned into gold.
Then great alarm seized her, and, shutting the door hastily, she ran
away. But her fear only increased more and more, and her heart beat so
violently that she thought it would burst; the gold also on her finger
would not come off, although she washed it and rubbed it with all her
strength.

Not long afterward the Guardian Angel came, back from her journey, and
cal