Now,
therefore, when she began to weep and to cry, “Dearest love, I set thee
free when thou wert in the iron stove in the terrible wild forest,” the
King’s son leapt up and said, “Thou art the true one, thou art mine,
and I am thine.” Thereupon, while it was still night, he got into a
carriage with her, and they took away the false bride’s clothes so that
she could not get up. When they came to the great lake, they sailed
across it, and when they reached the three sharp-cutting swords they
seated themselves on the plough-wheel, and when they got to the glass
mountain they thrust the three needles in it, and so at length they got
to the little old house; but when they went inside that, it was a great
castle, and the toads were all disenchanted, and were King’s children,
and full of happiness. Then the wedding was celebrated, and the King’s
son and the princess remained in the castle, which was much larger than
the castles of their fathers. As, however, the old King grieved at
being left alone, they fetched him away, and brought him to live with
them, and they had two kingdoms, and lived in happy wedlock. A mouse did run,
This story is done. 128 The Lazy Spinner

In a certain village there once lived a man and his wife, and the wife
was so idle that she would never work at anything; whatever her husband
gave her to spin, she did not get done, and what she did spin she did
not wind, but let it all remain entangled in a heap. If the man scolded
her, she was always ready with her tongue, and said, “Well, how should
I wind it, when I have no reel? Just you go into the forest and get me
one.” “If that is all,” said the man, “then I will go into the forest,
and get some wood for making reels.” Then the woman was afraid that if
he had the wood he would make her a reel of it, and she would have to
wind her yarn off, and then begin to spin again. She bethought herself
a little, and then a lucky idea occurred to her, and she secretly
followed the man into the forest, and when he had climbed into a tree
to choose and cut the wood, she crept into the thicket below where he
could not see her, and cried,

“He who cuts wood for reels shall die,
And he who winds, shall perish.”


The man listened, laid down his axe for a moment, and began to consider
what that could mean. “Hollo,” he said at last, “what can that have
been; my ears must have been singing, I won’t alarm myself for
nothing.” So he again seized the axe, and began to hew, then again
there came a cry from below:

“He who cuts wood for reels shall die,
And he who winds, shall perish.”


He stopped, and felt afraid and alarmed, and pondered over the
circumstance. But when a few moments had passed, he took heart again,
and a third time he stretched out his hand for the axe, and began to
cut. But some one called out a third time, and said loudly,

“He who cuts wood for reels shall die,
And he who winds, shall perish.”


That was enough for him, and all inclination had departed from him, so
he hastily descended the tree, and set out on his way home. The woman
ran as fast as she could by by-ways so as to get home first. So when he
entered the parlour, she put on an innocent look as if nothing had
happened, and said, “Well, have you brought a nice piece of wood for
reels?” “No,” said he, “I see very well that winding won’t do,” and
told her what had happened to him in the forest, and from that time
forth left her in peace about it. Neverthless after some time, the man
again began to complain of the disorder in the house. “Wife,” said he,
“it is really a shame that the spun yarn should lie there all
entangled!” “I’ll tell you what,” said she, “as we still don’t come by
any reel, go you up into the loft, and I will stand down below, and
will throw the yarn up to you, and you will throw it down to me, and so
we shall get a skein after all.” “Yes, that will do,” said the man. So
they did that, and when it was done, he said, “The yarn is in skeins,
now it must be boiled.” The woman was again distressed; She certainly
said, “Yes, we will boil it next morning early.” but she was secretly
contriving another trick. Early in the morning she got up, lighted a fire, and put the kettle on,
only instead of the yarn, she put in a lump of tow, and let it boil. After that she went to the man who was still lying in bed, and said to
him, “I must just go out, you must get up and look after the yarn which
is in the kettle on the fire, but you must be at hand at once; mind
that, for if the cock should happen to crow, and you are not attending
to the yarn, it will become tow.” The man was willing and took good
care not to loiter. He got up as quickly as he could, and went into the
kitchen. But when he reached the kettle and peeped in, he saw, to his
horror, nothing but a lump of tow. Then the poor man was as still as a
mouse, thinking he had neglected it, and was to blame, and in future
said no more about yarn and spinning. But you yourself must own she was
an odious woman! 129 The Four Skilful Brothers

There was once a poor man who had four sons, and when they were grown
up, he said to them, “My dear children, you must now go out into the
world, for I have nothing to give you, so set out, and go to some
distance and learn a trade, and see how you can make your way.” So the
four brothers took their sticks, bade their father farewell, and went
through the town-gate together. When they had travelled about for some
time, they came to a cross-way which branched off in four different
directions. Then said the eldest, “Here we must separate, but on this
day four years, we will meet each other again at this spot, and in the
meantime we will seek our fortunes.”

Then each of them went his way, and the eldest met a man who asked him
where he was going, and what he was intending to do? “I want to learn a
trade,” he replied. Then the other said, “Come with me, and be a
thief.” “No,” he answered, “that is no longer regarded as a reputable
trade, and the end of it is that one has to swing on the gallows.”
“Oh,” said the man, “you need not be afraid of the gallows; I will only
teach you to get such things as no other man could ever lay hold of,
and no one will ever detect you.” So he allowed himself to be talked
into it, and while with the man became an accomplished thief, and so
dexterous that nothing was safe from him, if he once desired to have
it. The second brother met a man who put the same question to him what
he wanted to learn in the world. “I don’t know yet,” he replied.