, and do all the dirty work.

Thus Cat-skin lived for a long time very sorrowfully. 'Ah! pretty
princess!' thought she, 'what will now become of thee?' But it happened
one day that a feast was to be held in the king's castle, so she said to
the cook, 'May I go up a little while and see what is going on? I will
take care and stand behind the door.' And the cook said, 'Yes, you may
go, but be back again in half an hour's time, to rake out the ashes.'
Then she took her little lamp, and went into her cabin, and took off the
fur skin, and washed the soot from off her face and hands, so that her
beauty shone forth like the sun from behind the clouds. She next opened
her nutshell, and brought out of it the dress that shone like the sun,
and so went to the feast. Everyone made way for her, for nobody knew
her, and they thought she could be no less than a king's daughter. But
the king came up to her, and held out his hand and danced with her; and
he thought in his heart, 'I never saw any one half so beautiful.'

When the dance was at an end she curtsied; and when the king looked
round for her, she was gone, no one knew wither. The guards that stood
at the castle gate were called in: but they had seen no one. The truth
was, that she had run into her little cabin, pulled off her dress,
blackened her face and hands, put on the fur-skin cloak, and was
Cat-skin again. When she went into the kitchen to her work, and began
to rake the ashes, the cook said, 'Let that alone till the morning, and
heat the king's soup; I should like to run up now and give a peep: but
take care you don't let a hair fall into it, or you will run a chance of
never eating again.'

As soon as the cook went away, Cat-skin heated the king's soup, and
toasted a slice of bread first, as nicely as ever she could; and when it
was ready, she went and looked in the cabin for her little golden ring,
and put it into the dish in which the soup was. When the dance was over,
the king ordered his soup to be brought in; and it pleased him so well,
that he thought he had never tasted any so good before. At the bottom
he saw a gold ring lying; and as he could not make out how it had got
there, he ordered the cook to be sent for. The cook was frightened when
he heard the order, and said to Cat-skin, 'You must have let a hair fall
into the soup; if it be so, you will have a good beating.' Then he went
before the king, and he asked him who had cooked the soup. 'I did,'
answered