and that in a very short time, if you will promise to do what I
ask you. I am a greater prince than you are a princess, and I
will marry you.' Then she grew frightened, and thought, 'What
can a young lassie do with an iron stove?' But as she wanted very
much to go home to her father, she promised to do what he wished.

He said, 'You must come again, and bring a knife with you to
scrape a hole in the iron.'

Then he gave her someone for a guide, who walked near her and
said nothing, but he brought her in two hours to her house.
There was great joy in the castle when the Princess came back,
and the old King fell on her neck and kissed her. But she was
very much troubled, and said, 'Dear father, listen to what has
befallen me! I should never have come home again out of the
great wild wood if I had not come to an iron stove, to whom I
have had to promise that I will go back to free him and marry
him!' The old King was so frightened that he nearly fainted, for
she was his only daughter. So they consulted together, and
determined that the miller's daughter, who was very beautiful,
should take her place. They took her there, gave her a knife,
and said she must scrape at the iron stove. She scraped for
twenty-four hours, but did not make the least impression. When
the day broke, a voice called from the iron stove, 'It seems to
me that it is day outside.' Then she answered, 'It seems so to
me; I think I hear my father's mill rattling.'

'So you are a miller's daughter! Then go away at once, and tell
the King's daughter to come.'