s on the
Princess's finger as a reward.

So the King sent a messenger to the Princess for the ring. She, however,
refused to part with it, because she had inherited it from her mother.
When the King was informed of this he fell into a rage, and said that he
would have the ring, let her have inherited it from whom she might.

'Well, it's of no use to be angry about it,' said the Princess, 'for I
can't get it off. If you want the ring you will have to take the finger
too!'

'I will try, and then the ring will very soon come off,' said Farmer
Weatherbeard.

'No, thank you, I will try myself,' said the Princess, and she went away
to the fireplace and put some ashes on the ring.

So the ring came off and was lost among the ashes.

Farmer Weatherbeard changed himself into a hare, which scratched and
scraped about in the fireplace after the ring until the ashes were up to
its ears. But Jack changed himself into a fox, and bit the hare's head
off, and if Farmer Weatherbeard was possessed by the evil one all was
now over with him.(25)

(25) From P. C. Asbjornsen.

MOTHER HOLLE

ONCE upon a time there was a widow who had two daughters; one of them
was pretty and clever, and the other ugly and lazy. But as the ugly one
was her own daughter, she liked her far the best of the two, and the
pretty one had to do all the work of the house, and was in fact the
regular maid of all work. Every day she had to sit by a well on the high
road, and spin till her fingers were so sore that they often bled. One
day some drops of blood fell on her spindle, so she dipped it into the
well meaning to wash it, but, as luck would have it, it dropped from her
hand and fell right in. She ran weeping to her stepmother, and told her
what had happened, but she scolded her harshly, and was so merciless in
her anger that she said:

'Well, since you've dropped the spindle down, you must just go after it
yourself, and don't let me see your face again until you bring it with
you.'

Then the poor girl returned to the well, and not knowing what she was
about, in the despair and misery of her heart she sprang into the well
and sank to the bottom. For a time she lost all consciousness, and when
she came to herself again she was lying in a lovely meadow, with the sun
shining brightly overhead, and a thousand flowers blooming at her feet.
She rose up and wandered through this enchanted place, till she came
to a baker's oven full of bread, and the b