gift.

Then the miser said, 'Bind me fast, bind me fast, for pity's sake.'
But the countryman seized his fiddle, and struck up a tune, and at the
first note judge, clerks, and jailer were in motion; all began
capering, and no one could hold the miser. At the second note the
hangman let his prisoner go, and danced also, and by the time he had
played the first bar of the tune, all were dancing together--judge,
court, and miser, and all the people who had followed to look on. At
first the thing was merry and pleasant enough; but when it had gone on
a while, and there seemed to be no end of playing or dancing, they
began to cry out, and beg him to leave off; but he stopped not a whit
the more for their entreaties, till the judge not only gave him his
life, but promised to return him the hundred florins.

Then he called to the miser, and said, 'Tell us now, you vagabond,
where you got that gold, or I shall play on for your amusement only,'
'I stole it,' said the miser in the presence of all the people; 'I
acknowledge that I stole it, and that you earned it fairly.' Then the
countryman stopped his fiddle, and left the miser to take his place at
the gallows.



ASHPUTTEL

The wife of a rich man fell sick; and when she felt that her end drew
nigh, she called her only daughter to her bed-side, and said, 'Always
be a good girl, and I will look down from heaven and watch over you.'
Soon afterwards she shut her eyes and died, and was buried in the
garden; and the little girl went every day to her grave and wept, and
was always good and kind to all about her. And the snow fell and
spread a beautiful white covering over the grave; but by the time the
spring came, and the sun had melted it away again, her father had
married another wife. This new wife had two daughters of her own, that
she brought home with her; they were fair in face but foul at heart,
and it was now a sorry time for the poor little girl. 'What does the
good-for-nothing want in the parlour?' said they; 'they who would eat
bread should first earn it; away with the kitchen-maid!' Then they
took away her fine clothes, and gave her an old grey frock to put on,
and laughed at her, and turned her into the kitchen.

There she was forced to do hard work; to rise early before daylight,
to bring the water, to make the fire, to cook and to wash. Besides
that, the sisters plagued her in all sorts of ways, and laughed at
her. In the evening when she was tired, she had no bed to lie down on,
but was made to lie by the hearth among the ashes; and as this, of
course, made her always dusty and dirty, they called her Ashputtel.

It happened once that the father was going to the fair, and asked his
wife's daughters what he should bring them. 'Fine clothes,' said the
first; 'Pearls and diamonds,' cried the second. 'Now, child,' said he
to his own daughter, 'what will you have?' 'The first twig, dear
father, that brushes against your hat when you turn your face to come
homewards,' said she. Then he bought for the first two the fine
clothes and pearls and diamonds they had asked for: and on his way
home, as he rode through a green copse, a hazel twig brushed against
him, and almost pushed off his hat: so he broke it off and brought it
away; and when he got home he gave it to his daughter. Then she took
it, and went to her mother's grave and planted it there; and cried so
much that it was watered with her tears; and there it grew and became
a fine tree. Three times every day she went to it and cried; and soon
a little bird came and built its nest upon the tree, and talked with
her, and watched over her, and brought her whatever she wished for.

Now it happened that the king of that land held a feast, which was to
last three days; and out of those who came to it his son was to choose
a bride for himself. Ashputtel's two sisters were asked to come; so
they called her up, and said, 'Now, comb our hair, brush our shoes,
and tie our sashes for us, for we are going to dance at the king's
feast.' Then she did as she was told; but when all was done she could
not help crying, for she thought to herself, she should so have liked
to have gone with them to the ball; and at last she begged her mother
very hard to let her go. 'You, Ashputtel!' said she; 'you who have
nothing to wear, no clothes at all, and who cannot even dance--you
want to go to the ball? And when she kept on begging, she said at
last, to get rid of her, 'I will throw this dishful of peas into the
ash-heap, and if in two hours' time you have picked them all out, you
shall go to the feast too.'

Then she threw the peas down among the ashes, but the little maiden
ran out at the back door into the garden, and cried out:

'Hither, hither, through the sky,
Turtle-doves and linnets, fly!
Blackbird, thrush, and chaffinch gay,
Hither, hither, haste away!
One and all come help me, quick!
Haste ye, haste ye!--pick, pick, pick!'

Then first came two white doves, flying in at the kitchen window; next
came two turtle-doves; and after them came all the little birds under
heaven, chirping and fluttering in: and they flew down into the ashes.
And the little doves stooped their heads down and set to work, pick,
pick, pick; and then the others began to pick, pick, pick: and among
them all they soon picked out all the good grain, and put it into a
dish but left the ashes. Long before the end of the hour the work was
quite done, and all flew out again at the windows.

Then Ashputtel brought the dish to her mother, overjoyed at the


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