screaming, whereupon, yet once more, the wise woman set her down on
the heath, a few yards from the back of the cottage, and saying
only, "No one ever gets into my house who does not knock at the
door, and ask to come in," disappeared round the corner of the
cottage, leaving the princess alone with the moon--two white faces
in the cone of the night.






III.





The moon stared at the princess, and the princess stared at the
moon; but the moon had the best of it, and the princess began to
cry. And now the question was between the moon and the cottage. The
princess thought she knew the worst of the moon, and she knew
nothing at all about the cottage, therefore she would stay with the
moon. Strange, was it not, that she should have been so long with
the wise woman, and yet know NOTHING about that cottage? As for the
moon, she did not by any means know the worst of her, or even, that,
if she were to fall asleep where she could find her, the old witch
would certainly do her best to twist her face.

But she had scarcely sat a moment longer before she was assailed by