said to her, "I cannot part your hair on my knee, fetch a billet of
wood." So she fetched it. Then said the stepmother, "I cannot part
your hair with a comb, fetch me an axe." So she fetched it.

"Now," said the wicked woman, "lay your head down on the billet whilst
I part your hair."

Well! she laid down her little golden head without fear; and whist!
down came the axe, and it was off. So the mother wiped the axe and
laughed.

Then she took the heart and liver of the little girl, and she stewed
them and brought them into the house for supper. The husband tasted
them and shook his head. He said they tasted very strangely. She gave
some to the little boy, but he would not eat. She tried to force him,
but he refused, and ran out into the garden, and took up his little
sister, and put her in a box, and buried the box under a rose-tree;
and every day he went to the tree and wept, till his tears ran down on
the box.

One day the rose-tree flowered. It was spring, and there among the
flowers was a white bird; and it sang, and sang, and sang like an
angel out of heaven. Away it flew, and it went to a cobbler's shop,
and perched itself on a tree hard by; and thus it sang,

"My wicked mother slew me,
My dear father ate me,
My little brother whom I love
Sits below, and I sing above
Stick, stock, stone dead."