leave,'
she flounced into the room, sat herself down at the fire, and began to
eat her bread and butter and cakes.

'Give us some,' cried the Dwarfs.

But she answered: 'No, I won't, it's hardly enough for myself; so catch
me giving you any.'

When she had finished eating they said:

'There's a broom for you, go and clear up our back door.'

'I'll see myself further,' she answered rudely. 'Do it yourselves; I'm
not your servant.'

When she saw that they did not mean to give her anything, she left the
house in no amiable frame of mind. Then the three little men consulted
what they should do to her, because she was so bad and had such an evil,
covetous heart, that she grudged everybody their good fortune.

The first said: 'She shall grow uglier every day.'

The second: 'Every time she speaks a toad shall jump out of her mouth.'

And the third: 'She shall die a most miserable death.'

The girl searched for strawberries, but she found none, and returned
home in a very bad temper. When she opened her mouth to tell her mother
what had befallen her in the wood, a toad jumped out, so that everyone
was quite disgusted with her.

Then the stepmother was more furious than ever, and did nothing but plot
mischief against the man's daughter, who was daily growing more and more
beautiful. At last, one day the wicked woman took a large pot, put it on
the fire and boiled some yarn in it. When it was well scalded she hung
it round the poor girl's shoulder, and giving her an axe, she bade
her break a hole in the frozen river, and rinse the yarn in it. Her
stepdaughter obeyed as usual, and went and broke a hole in the ice.
When she was in the act of wringing out the yarn a magnificent carriage
passed, and the King sat inside. The carriage stood still, and the King
asked her:

'My child, who are you, and what in the wide world are you doing here?'

'I am only a poor girl,' she answered, 'and am rinsing out my yarn
in the river.' Then the King was sorry for her, and when he saw how
beautiful she was he said:

'Will you come away with me?'

'Most gladly,' she replied, for she knew how willingly she would leave
her stepmother and sister, and how glad they would be to be rid of her.

So she stepped into the carriage and drove away with the King, and when
they reached his palace the wedding was celebrated with much splendour.
So all turned out just as the three little Dwarfs had said. After a year
the Queen gave birth to a l