That evening she said to her husband, “I am afraid my mother must be very unhappy. She is old and poor, and now there is no one to work for her or take care of her. Let me go and see her.” “No,” said the man; “I can’t spare you.” “Well, then, let me fill a chest with clothes and money, and you shall carry it to her.” “Very well,” said the man; “have it ready by to-morrow morning.” So the girl put linen and gold into a chest. Then she made her eldest sister get in, and shut down the lid. “Now,” she said to her husband, “you must not set down the chest at all: remember, I can see you all the way. Go straight there and back again, for I want you at home.” The man put the chest on his head and set off. After a time he began to want to put down his burden for a little, and said to himself:— “My wife can’t possibly see me; there’s this hill between me and her”: and he began to set down the chest. “Do you think I can’t see you?” a voice said. “Silly man, I can see you everywhere.” “Oh dear, oh dear,” said the man to himself, “what a clever wife mine is! She can see me even through a hill. And how fond of me she is! She knows what I am doing wherever I am.” So he staggered on to his mother-in-law’s, threw down the box, and went home again. A little while after the second sister was sent home in the same way, and now the girl began to think how she could get away herself. One evening she said to her husband:— “I want you to take some more things to my mother. I shall get everything ready to-night. Don’t wake me in the morning before you go, as I shall come to bed very late. I have to make the bread.” The man went off to bed, and the girl set to work. She made a great doll of dough and put it in her bed; then she put clothes and money into the chest, crept in herself, and pulled down the lid. The next morning the man got up early. “Wife, wife,” he shouted, “good-bye!” No answer. “Ah, I forgot, she was up late making bread. She’s a dear little wife, and works very hard.” So he crept on tiptoe to her bedside, saw the figure under the clothes, and went out as quietly as he had gone in. Then he took the chest and started. Again he wanted to set down his burden, again the warning voice stopped him, and at last he flung down the box at his mother-in-law’s door, declaring that this was the last he would bring her. When he got home he called, “Wife! wife!” Still no answer. “What, is she still asleep? She must be tired”; and he went to shake her. Then he found that there was no wife there, but only a figure of dough, and that he was alone once more in his underground palace. TASSA