THE THREE LITTLE MEN IN THE FOREST

There was a man whose wife died, and he was undecided whether he wanted to marry again. Finally, he took off one of his boots that had a hole in the sole and said to his daughter, his only child: "Take this boot and carry it up to the loft, where you'll find a large nail. Hang the boot on the nail. Then fetch some water, and pour the water into the boot. If it holds the water, I'll get married again. But if it leaks, I'll let things remain as they are."

The maiden did as she was told. The water drew the hole together, and the boot became full to the brim. The father checked to see for himself whether this was true. Then he said: "Well, now I've got to take a wife."

So he went and courted a widow who brought a daughter from her first husband with her into the house. When she saw that her stepdaughter was beautiful and that everyone was fond of her, and that her own daughter was ugly, she scolded the stepdaughter whenever she could and only thought of how she might torment her.

One day, in the middle of winter, when the snow was high, the stepmother sewed her a dress made of paper, and when it was finished, she called her stepdaughter to her and said, "I've got a craving to eat strawberries. So put on this dress, go into the forest, and fetch me a basket of strawberries. And don't you dare return home until the basket is full."

The maiden wept bitter tears and said, "Strawberries don't grow in winter, and even if they were there, they'd be covered by the snow. How am I supposed to find them? It's so cold outside that my breath will freeze. How can I go out in a paper dress? The wind will blow right through the dress, and the thorns will tear it off my body."

"Don't say one more word!" the stepmother replied. "Get going and look for the strawberries."

In her jealous heart she thought that the maiden would freeze outside and never return. That's why she had made the thin paper dress. Since the maiden was obedient, she put on the paper dress and went out into the forest. There was nothing but snow, not even a blade of green grass. So she kept going, and when she reached the middle of the forest, she saw a small cottage, and three little men were looking out the window. She wished them a good day, and since she greeted them so politely, they asked her what she was looking for in the forest dressed in such a thin paper dress when it was wintertime.

"Oh," she answered, "I'm supposed to look for strawberries, and I'm not allowed to return home until I've gathered a basketful."

The three little men responded: "Go behind our house and clear the snow away. The strawberries have been protected there and have grown. You'll find enough to fill your basket."

The maiden thanked them and did as she was told. While she cleared away the snow and gathered the strawberries, the three little men began talking among themselves.

"Since she's been so polite to us and is so beautiful, what gifts should we grant her?"

"I'll make sure that she becomes even more beautiful than she is. This is my gift," one of the little men said.

"Each time she speaks, golden coins will fall out of her mouth. That will be my gift," said another one of the little men.

"I'll grant her a king who will come and take her for his wife," the third little man said.

When the maiden came back to them, they bestowed their gifts on her, and when she wanted to thank them, golden coins fell out of her mouth. Then she went home, and the stepmother was astonished by the strawberries that she had brought with her and was even more astonished when she saw the coins that fell from the girl's mouth. Shortly thereafter, a king came, took the maiden with him, and made her his wife.

Now the mother thought about how she might provide her daughter with the same great fortune. So she sewed her a splendid fur coat and told her to go into the forest and ask the little men for a gift. But the men saw that she had a wicked heart, and instead of giving her good gifts, they gave her bad ones. The first wished that she would freeze in her fur coat as if it were made of paper. The second wished that she would grow uglier with each passing day. The third wished that she would die a miserable death.

The girl returned home shivering, as if her fur coat had been made of paper, and she told her mother what she had encountered, and when her mother saw that the curses of the three men were starting to take effect, she thought only of avenging herself. So she went to her stepdaughter, who was now the queen, and pretended to be friendly and charming. Consequently, she was welcomed and given her own apartment.

Shortly thereafter the queen gave birth to a prince, and one night, when she was alone and sick and weak, the wicked stepmother lifted her out of the bed with the help of her daughter, and they carried the queen outside to a river and threw her into it. The next morning they told the king that the queen had died during the night.

The following night the kitchen boy saw a duck swimming through the drain into the kitchen, and it asked:

"Are all my guests now sound asleep?"

Then the kitchen boy answered:

"Yes, indeed, you can't hear a peep."

"How about that baby of mine?"

"He's asleep and doing just fine."

Then the duck assumed the shape of the queen, went upstairs, suckled and nursed the baby, plumped up his little bed, covered him, and returned to the drain, where she swam away as a duck. This happened the next night too, and on the third night, she said to the kitchen boy, "Go and tell the king to take his sword and swing it three times over my head on the threshold."

The kitchen boy ran and told the king, and when he swung the sword three times, his wife appeared before him alive and well. The duplicity of the stepmother and her daughter was now clear as day, and they were cast into the forest to be devoured by wild animals.