th me,' she said, and she lifted up the lid of the chest; 'take one
out for yourself.' And as he bent over to do so, the evil spirit urged
her, and crash! down went the lid, and off went the little boy's head.
Then she was overwhelmed with fear at the thought of what she had done.
'If only I can prevent anyone knowing that I did it,' she thought. So
she went upstairs to her room, and took a white handkerchief out of
her top drawer; then she set the boy's head again on his shoulders, and
bound it with the handkerchief so that nothing could be seen, and placed
him on a chair by the door with an apple in his hand.

Soon after this, little Marleen came up to her mother who was stirring
a pot of boiling water over the fire, and said, 'Mother, brother is
sitting by the door with an apple in his hand, and he looks so pale;
and when I asked him to give me the apple, he did not answer, and that
frightened me.'

'Go to him again,' said her mother, 'and if he does not answer, give him
a box on the ear.' So little Marleen went, and said, 'Brother, give me
that apple,' but he did not say a word; then she gave him a box on the
ear, and his head rolled off. She was so terrified at this, that she ran
crying and screaming to her mother. 'Oh!' she said, 'I have knocked off
brother's head,' and then she wept and wept, and nothing would stop her.

'What have you done!' said her mother, 'but no one must know about it,
so you must keep silence; what is done can't be undone; we will make
him into puddings.' And she took the little boy and cut him up, made him
into puddings, and put him in the pot. But Marleen stood looking on,
and wept and wept, and her tears fell into the pot, so that there was no
need of salt.

Presently the father came home and sat down to his dinner; he asked,
'Where is my son?' The mother said nothing, but gave him a large dish of
black pudding, and Marleen still wept without ceasing.

The father again asked, 'Where is my son?'

'Oh,' answered the wife, 'he is gone into the country to his mother's
great uncle; he is going to stay there some time.'

'What has he gone there for, and he never even said goodbye to me!'

'Well, he likes being there, and he told me he should be away quite six
weeks; he is well looked after there.'

'I feel very unhappy about it,' said the husband, 'in case it should not
be all right, and he ought to have said goodbye to me.'

With this he went on with his dinner, and said, 'Little Ma