now the horses were not
able to draw the coach. They had six horses already, and now they put in
eight, and then ten, and then twelve, but the more they put in, and
the more the coachman whipped them, the less good it did; and the coach
never stirred from the spot. It was already beginning to be late in the
day, and to church they must and would go, so everyone who was in the
palace was in a state of distress. Then the bailiff spoke up and said:
"Out there in the gilded cottage in the thicket dwells a girl, and if
you could but get her to lend you her calf I know it could draw the
coach, even if it were as heavy as a mountain." They all thought that
it was ridiculous to be drawn to church by a calf, but there was nothing
else for it but to send a messenger once more, and beg as prettily as
they could, on behalf of the King, that she would let them have the loan
of the calf that the bailiff had told them about. The Master-maid let
them have it immediately--this time also she would not say "no."

Then they harnessed the calf to see if the coach would move; and away
it went, over rough and smooth, over stock and stone, so that they could
scarcely breathe, and sometimes they were on the ground, and sometimes
up in the air; and when they came to the church the coach began to
go round and round like a spinning-wheel, and it was with the utmost
difficulty and danger that they were able to get out of the coach and
into the church. And when they went back again the coach went quicker
still, so that most of them did not know how they got back to the palace
at all.

When they had seated themselves at the table the Prince who had been in
service with the giant said that he thought they ought to have invited
the maiden who had lent them the shovel-handle, and the porch-door,
and the calf up to the palace, "for," said he, "if we had not got these
three things, we should never have got away from the palace."

The King also thought that this was both just and proper, so he sent
five of his best men down to the gilded hut, to greet the maiden
courteously from the King, and to beg her to be so good as to come up to
the palace to dinner at mid-day.

"Greet the King, and tell him that, if he is too good to come to me, I
am too good to come to him," replied the Master-maid.

So the King had to go himself, and the Master-maid went with him
immediately, and, as the King believed that she was more than she
appeared to be, he seated her in