days before he could get home again.

And now the lassie began to look about her and to think of how she might
free the Prince, but nowhere did she see a sign of life.

Then she sat herself down right under the castle windows, and as soon as
the sun went down, out they came, trolls and witches, red-eyed,
long-nosed, hunch-backed hags, tumbling over each other, scolding,
hurrying and scurrying hither and thither.

At first they almost frightened the life out of her, but when she had
watched them awhile and they had not noticed her, she took courage and
walked up to one of them and said: "Pray tell me what goes on here
to-night that you are all so busy, and could I perhaps get something to
do for a night's lodging and a bit of food?"

"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the horrid witch, "and where do you come from that
you do not know that it is to-night that the Prince chooses his bride.
When the moon stands high over the tree tops yonder we meet in the
clearing by the old oak. There the caldrons are ready with boiling lye,
for don't you know?--he's going to choose for his bride the one who can
wash three spots of tallow from his shirt, Ha, ha, ha!"

And the wicked witch hurried off again, laughing such a horrible laugh
that it made the lassie's blood run cold.

But now the trolls and witches came trooping out of the very earth, it
seemed, and all turned their steps toward the clearing in the woods.

So the lassie went too, and found a place among the rest. Now the moon