After a time there was another feast, and the Many-furred Creature
begged the cook as at the last one to let her go and look on. He
answered, ‘Yes, but come back again in half-an-hour and cook the King
the bread-soup that he likes so much.’ So she ran away to her little
room, washed herself quickly, took out of the nut the dress as silver
as the moon and put it on. Then she went upstairs looking just like a
King’s daughter, and the King came towards her, delighted to see her
again, and as the dance had just begun, they danced together. But when
the dance was ended, she disappeared again so quickly that the King
could not see which way she went. She ran to her little room and changed
herself once more into the Many-furred Creature, and went into the
kitchen to cook the bread-soup. When the cook was upstairs, she fetched
the golden spinning-wheel and put it in the dish so that the soup was
poured over it. It was brought to the King, who ate it, and liked it as
much as the last time. He had the cook sent to him, and again he had
to confess that the Many-furred Creature had cooked the soup. Then the
Many-furred Creature came before the King, but she said again that she
was of no use except to have boots thrown at her head, and that she knew
nothing at all of the golden spinning-wheel.
When the King had a feast for the third time, things did not turn out
quite the same as at the other two. The cook said, ‘You must be a witch,
Many-furred Creature, for you always put something in the soup, so that
it is much better and tastes nicer to the King than any that I cook.’
But because she begged hard, he let her go up for the usual time. Now
she put on the dress as shining as the stars, and stepped into the hall
in it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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