They asked, “What dost thou here in the forest
in the winter time, in thy thin dress?” “Ah,” she answered, “I am to
look for a basketful of strawberries, and am not to go home until I can
take them with me.” When she had eaten her bread, they gave her a broom
and said, “Sweep away the snow at the back door with it.” But when she
was outside, the three little men said to each other, “What shall we
give her as she is so good, and has shared her bread with us?” Then
said the first, “My gift is, that she shall every day grow more
beautiful.” The second said, “My gift is, that gold pieces shall fall
out of her mouth every time she speaks.” The third said, “My gift is,
that a king shall come and take her to wife.”

The girl, however, did as the little men had bidden her, swept away the
snow behind the little house with the broom, and what did she find but
real ripe strawberries, which came up quite dark-red out of the snow! In her joy she hastily gathered her basket full, thanked the little
men, shook hands with each of them, and ran home to take her
step-mother what she had longed for so much. When she went in and said
good-evening, a piece of gold at once fell from her mouth. Thereupon
she related what had happened to her in the wood, but with every word
she spoke, gold pieces fell from her mouth, until very soon the whole
room was covered with them. “Now look at her arrogance,” cried the
step-sister, “to throw about gold in that way!” but she was secretly
envious of it, and wanted to go into the forest also to seek
strawberries. The mother said, “No, my dear little daughter, it is too
cold, thou mightest die of cold.” However, as her daughter let her have
no peace, the mother at last yielded, made her a magnificent dress of
fur, which she was obliged to put on, and gave her bread-and-butter and
cake with her. The girl went into the forest and straight up to the little house. The
three little elves peeped out again, but she did not greet them, and
without looking round at them and without speaking to them, she went
awkwardly into the room, seated herself by the stove, and began to eat
her bread-and-butter and cake. “Give us some of it,” cried the little
men; but she replied, “There is not enough for myself, so how can I
give it away to other people?” When she had done eating, they said,
“There is a broom for thee, sweep all clean for us outside by the
back-door.” “Humph! Sweep for yourselves,” she answered, “I am not your
servant.” When she saw that they were not going to give her anything,
she went out by the door. Then the little men said to each other, “What
shall we give her as she is so naughty, and has a wicked envious heart,
that will never let her do a good turn to any one?” The first said, “I
grant that she may grow uglier every day.” The second said, “I grant
that at every word she says, a toad shall spring out of her mouth.” The
third said, “I grant that she may die a miserable death.” The maiden
looked for strawberries outside, but as she found none, she went
angrily home. And when she opened her mouth, and was about to tell her
mother what had happened to her in the wood, with every word she said,
a toad sprang out of her mouth, so that every one was seized with
horror of her. Then the step-mother was still more enraged, and thought of nothing but
how to do every possible injury to the man’s daughter, whose beauty,
however, grew daily greater. At length she took a cauldron, set it on
the fire, and boiled yarn in it. When it was boiled, she flung it on
the poor girl’s shoulder, and gave her an axe in order that she might
go on the frozen river, cut a hole in the ice, and rinse the yarn. She
was obedient, went thither and cut a hole in the ice; and while she was
in the midst of her cutting, a splendid carriage came driving up, in
which sat the King. The carriage stopped, and the King asked,”My child,
who are thou, and what art thou doing here?” “I am a poor girl, and I
am rinsing yarn.” Then the King felt compassion, and when he saw that
she was so very beautiful, he said to her, “Wilt thou go away with me?”
“Ah, yes, with all my heart,” she answered, for she was glad to get
away from the mother and sister. So she got into the carriage and drove away with the King, and when
they arrived at his palace, the wedding was celebrated with great pomp,
as the little men had granted to the maiden. When a year was over, the
young Queen bore a son, and as the step-mother had heard of her great
good-fortune, she came with her daughter to the palace and pretended
that she wanted to pay her a visit. Once, however, when the King had
gone out, and no one else was present, the wicked woman seized the
Queen by the head, and her daughter seized her by the feet, and they
lifted her out of the bed, and threw her out of the window into the
stream which flowed by. Then the ugly daughter laid herself in the bed,
and the old woman covered her up over her head. When the King came home
again and wanted to speak to his wife, the old woman cried, “Hush,
hush, that can’t be now, she is lying in a violent perspiration; you
must let her rest to-day.” The King suspected no evil, and did not come
back again till next morning; and as he talked with his wife and she
answered him, with every word a toad leaped out, whereas formerly a
piece of gold had fallen out. Then he asked what that could be, but the
old woman said that she had got that from the violent perspiration, and
would soon lose it again. During the night, however, the scullion saw a
duck come swimming up the gutter, and it said,

“King, what art thou doing now? Sleepest thou, or wakest thou?”


And as he returned no answer, it said,

“And my guests, What may they do?”


The scullion said,

“They are sleeping soundly, too.”


Then it asked again,

“What does little baby mine?”


He answered,

“Sleepeth in her cradle fine.”


Then she went upstairs in the form of the Queen, nursed the baby, shook
up its little bed, covered it over, and then swam away again down the
gutter in the shape of a duck. She came thus for two nights; on the
third, she said to the scullion, “Go and tell the King to take his
sword and swing it three times over me on the threshold.” Then the
scullion ran and told this to the King, who came with his sword and
swung it thrice over the spirit, and at the third time, his wife stood
before him strong, living, and healthy as she had been before. Thereupon the King was full of great joy, but he kept the Queen hidden
in a chamber until the Sunday, when the baby was to be christened.