of the maiden, which seemed to
say, "Silence!" So the young man allowed his eyes to speak, and gave
expression to this dumb language by his good appetite, for the maiden
had prepared the supper, and it must be pleasant to her to see that the
guest appreciated her cookery. Meantime the old man had lain down on
the stove-bench, and made the walls re-echo with his snoring.

After supper he roused himself, and said to the prince, "You may rest
for two days after your long journey, and look round the house. But come
to me to-morrow evening and I will arrange your work for next day, for
my household must always set about their work before I get up myself.
The girl will show you your lodging." The prince made an effort to
speak, but the old man came down on him like a thunderbolt, and screamed
out, "You dog of a servant! If you break the rules of the house, you'll
find yourself a head shorter without more ado. Hold your jaw, and off to
bed with you!"

The maiden beckoned him to follow, unlocked a door and signed to him to
enter. The prince thought he saw a tear glisten in her eye, and would
have been only too glad to loiter on the threshold, but he was too much
afraid of the old man. "It's impossible that this beautiful girl can be
his daughter," thought he, "for she has a kind heart. She must be the
poor girl who was brought here in my place, and for whose sake I
undertook this foolhardy enterprise." He did not fall asleep for a long
time, and even then his uneasy dreams gave him no rest. He dreamed of
all sorts of unknown dangers which threatened him, and it was always the
form of the fair girl that came to his aid.

When he awoke next morning, his first thought was to do his best to
ingratiate himself with the maiden. He found the industrious girl
already at work, and helped her to draw water from the well and carry it
into the house, chopped wood, kept up the fire under the pots, and
helped her in all her other work. In the afternoon he went out to make
himself better acquainted with his new abode, and was much surprised
that he could find no trace of the old grandmother. He saw a white mare
in the stable, and a black cow with a white-headed calf in the
enclosure, and in other locked outhouses he thought he heard ducks,
geese, fowls, &c. Breakfast and dinner were just as good as last night's
supper, and he would have been very well content with his position, but
that it was so very hard to hold his tongue with the maide