ling the maiden to her, demanded the keys of the mansion. As she
delivered them up, the Angel looked in her face and asked, "Hast thou
opened the thirteenth door?"--"No," answered the maiden.

Then the Angel laid her hand upon the maiden's heart, and felt how
violently it was beating; and she knew that her command had been
disregarded, and that the child had opened the door. Then she asked
again, "Hast thou opened the thirteenth door?"--"No," said the maiden,
for the second time.

Then the Angel perceived that the child's finger had become golden from
touching the light, and she knew that the child was guilty; and she
asked her for the third time, "Hast thou opened the thirteenth
door?"--"No," said the maiden again.

Then the Guardian Angel replied, "Thou hast not obeyed me, nor done my
bidding; therefore thou art no longer worthy to remain among good
children."

And the maiden sank down in a deep sleep, and when she awoke she found
herself in the midst of a wilderness. She wished to call out, but she
had lost her voice. Then she sprang up, and tried to run away; but
wherever she turned thick bushes held her back, so that she could not
escape. In the deserted spot in which she was now enclosed, there
stood an old hollow tree; this was her dwelling-place. In this place
she slept by night, and when it rained and blew she found shelter
within it. Roots and wild berries were her food, and she sought for
them as far as she could reach. In the autumn she collected the leaves
of the trees, and laid them in her hole; and when the frost and snow of
the winter came, she clothed herself with them, for her clothes had
dropped into rags. But during the sunshine she sat outside the tree,
and her long hair fell down on all sides and covered her like a mantle.
Thus she remained a long time experiencing the misery and poverty of
the world.

But, once, when the trees had become green again, the King of the
country was hunting in the forest, and as a bird flew into the bushes
which surrounded the wood, he dismounted, and, tearing the brushwood
aside, cut a path for himself with his sword. When he had at last made
his way through, he saw a beautiful maiden, who was clothed from head
to foot with her own golden locks, sitting under the tree. He stood in
silence, and looked at her for some time in astonishment; at last he
said, "Child, how came you into this wilderness?" But the maiden
answered not, for she had become dumb.