‘Look, sisters,’ cried one, ‘surely that is the old woman that the king sent for. Shall we wish that her clothes may give way, and that she should be dashed to the ground?’ ‘Oh no! no!’ exclaimed another. ‘Let us wish her something good. I myself will wish her youth.’ ‘And I beauty.’ ‘And I wisdom.’ ‘And I a tender heart.’ So spake the fairies, and went their way, leaving the most beautiful maiden in the world behind them. The next morning when the king looked from his window he saw this lovely creature hanging on the nail. ‘Ah! what have I done? Surely I must have been blind last night!’ And he ordered long ladders to be brought and the maiden to be rescued. Then he fell on his knees before her, and prayed her to forgive him, and a great feast was made in her honour. Some days after came the ninety-year-old sister to the palace and asked for the queen. ‘Who is that hideous old witch?’ said the king. ‘Oh, an old neighbour of mine, who is half silly,’ she replied. But the old woman looked at her steadily, and knew her again, and said: ‘How have you managed to grow so young and beautiful? I should like to be young and beautiful too.’ This question she repeated the whole day long, till at length the queen lost patience and said: ‘I had my old head cut off, and this new head grew in its place.’ Then the old woman went to a barber, and spoke to him, saying, ‘I will give you all you ask if you will only cut off my head, so that I may become young and lovely.’ ‘But, my good woman, if I do that you will die!’ But the old woman would listen to nothing; and at last the barber took out his knife and struck the first blow at her neck. ‘Ah!’ she shrieked as she felt the pain. ‘Il faut souffrir pour etre belle,’ said the barber, who had been in France. And at the second blow her head rolled off, and the old woman was dead for good and all. Catherine and Her Destiny Sicilianische Mahrchen von Laura Gonzenbach. Leipzig, Engelmann, 1870. Long ago there lived a rich merchant who, besides possessing more treasures than any king in the world, had in his great hall three chairs, one of silver, one of gold, and one of diamonds. But his greatest treasure of all was his only daughter, who was called Catherine. One day Catherine was sitting in her own room when suddenly the door flew open, and in came a tall and beautiful woman holding in her hands a little wheel. ‘Catherine,’ she said, going up to the girl, ‘which would you rather have-a happy youth or a happy old age?’ Catherine was so taken by surprise that she did not know what to answer, and the lady repeated again, ‘Which would you rather have-a happy youth or a happy old age?’ Then Catherine thought to herself, ‘If I say a happy youth, then I shall have to suffer all the rest of my life. No, I would bear trouble now, and have something better to look forward to.’ So she looked up and replied, ‘Give me a happy old age.’