n, "I'll ha' one for
supper."

"But you can't, if they ain't come," says the gal.

"But I can," says she. "Goo you and bring the best of 'em."

"Best or worst," says the gal, "I've ate 'em all, and you can't ha' one
till that's come agin."

Well, the woman she were wholly bate, and she took her spinnin' to the
door to spin, and as she span she sang:

"My darter ha' ate five, five pies to-day--
My darter ha' ate five, five pies to-day."

The king, he were a comin' down the street and he hard her sing, but
what she sang he couldn't hare, so he stopped and said:

"What were that you was a singin of, woman?"

The woman, she were ashamed to let him hare what her darter had been
a-doin', so she sang, 'stids o' that:

"My darter ha' spun five, five skeins to-day--
My darter ha' spun five, five skeins to-day."

"S'ars o' mine!" said the king, "I never heerd tell of any one as could
do that."

Then he said: "Look you here, I want a wife, and I'll marry your darter.
But look you here," says he, "'leven months out o' the year she shall
have all the vittles she likes to eat, and all the gownds she likes to
git, and all the cumpny she likes to hev; but the last month o' the year
she'll ha' to spin five skeins iv'ry day, an' if she doon't, I shall
kill her."

"All right," says the woman; for she thowt what a grand marriage that
was. And as for them five skeins, when te come tew, there'd be plenty o'
ways of gettin' out of it, and likeliest, he'd ha' forgot about it.

Well, so they were married. An' for 'leven months the gal had all the
vittles she liked to ate, and all the gownds she liked to git, and all
the cumpny she liked to have.

But when the time was gettin' oover, she began to think about them there
skeins an' to wonder if he had 'em in mind. But not one word did he say
about 'em, an' she whoolly thowt he'd forgot 'em.

Howsivir, the last day o' the last month, he takes her to a room she'd
niver set eyes on afore. There worn't nothin' in it but a spinnin' wheel
and a stool. An' says he, "Now, me dear, hare you'll be shut in
to-morrow with some vittles and some flax, and if you hain't spun five
skeins by the night, yar hid'll goo off."

An' awa' he went about his business.

Well, she were that frightened. She'd allus been such a gatless gal,
that she didn't se much as know how to spin, an' what were she to dew
to-morrer, with no one to come nigh her to help her? She sat down on a
stool