"Oh!" he said, "why did you say that? If you had not spoken," he said:
"I would be all right; but now I must leave you for ever. And here is a
ring I will leave with you," he said: "and whatever desire you have, you
will get it when you rub the ring."

'He went away then, and there was no one left in the house but the young
girl; and all was darkness around her. And she went up the stairs; and
at last she saw a little sign of light through a hole in the roof; and
she rubbed the ring, and she said: "I wish that hole to be made bigger."
And so it was on the moment, and more light came in.

'And then she wished she could be up on the roof, and so she was. And
from the roof she could see the sea, and there was a ship on it in the
distance; and she said: "I wish I could be on the deck of that vessel."
And there she was on the deck, and the sailors not knowing where did she
come from. And she said to the captain: "Can you give me something to
eat?" And he said: "That is what I cannot do, for the harness casks are
empty, we are so long at sea; and we have not as much meat in them as
would go on the point of a knife." So she rubbed the ring then; and
there was a table before them, set out with every sort of food and
drink, and they all had enough.

'And then they came to a strange country; and she said to the captain to
leave her on land. And she went up to a big house, where some great man
lived, and she asked for employment as a sewing-maid. And they said:
"You may sew one of those dresses that is for the master's daughter
that is going to be married to-morrow. And mind you do it well," they
said.

'So she brought away the dress to her room, and she wished it to be the
best dress, and the best-sewed, that would be seen on the morrow. And
when the morrow came, so it was.

'Then she went out into the garden, where there were beautiful flowers
and trees; and she fastened a thread of silk from one tree to another,
to make a swing-swong, and she began swinging on it. And the young lady
that was going to be married, came down the steps into the garden, and
she wanted to go on the swing-swong. And the other said she had best not
go on it where she was not used to it, and she might get a fall. But she
said she would; and the other warned her secondly not to go on it. But
up she got, and the thread broke, and she fell and was killed on the
spot.

'Then all the people came out; and when they saw her dead, they had a
court-mart