shocked at the savage-tempered, evil-minded
girl; and when night came, and the beauteous form and the disposition
of her daughter changed, she poured forth her sorrow to her in warm
words, which came from the bottom of her heart.

The hideous frog with the ogre head stood before her, and fixed its
brown sad eyes upon her, listened, and seemed to understand with a
human being's intellect.

"Never, even to my husband, have I hinted at the double sufferings I
have through you," said the Viking's wife. "There is more sorrow in my
heart on your account than I could have believed. Great is a mother's
love. But love never enters your mind. Your heart is like a lump of
cold hard mud. From whence did you come to my house?"

Then the ugly shape trembled violently; it seemed as if these words
touched an invisible tie between the body and the soul--large tears
started to its eyes.

"Your time of trouble will come some day, depend on it," said the
Viking's wife, "and dreadful will it also be for me. Better had it
been that you had been put out on the highway, and the chillness of
the night had benumbed you until you slept in death;" and the Viking's
wife wept salt tears, and went angry and distressed away, passing
round behind the loose skin partition that hung over an upper beam to
divide the chamber.

Alone in a corner sat the shrivelled frog. She was mute, but after a
short interval she uttered a sort of half-suppressed sigh. It was as
if in sorrow a new life had awoke in some nook of her heart. She took
a step forward, listened, advanced again, and grasping with her
awkward hands the heavy bar that was placed across the door, she
removed it softly, and quietly drew away the pin that was stuck in
over the latch. She then seized the lighted lamp that stood in the
room beyond: it seemed as if a great resolution had given her
strength. She made her way down to the dungeon, drew back the iron
bolt that fastened the trap-door, and slid down to where the prisoner
was lying. He was sleeping. She touched him with her cold, clammy
hand; and when he awoke, and beheld the disgusting creature, he
shuddered as if he had seen an evil apparition. She drew her knife,
severed his bonds, and beckoned to him to follow her.

He named holy names, made the sign of the cross, and when the strange
shape stood without moving, he exclaimed, in the words of the Bible,--

"'Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him
in time