aten it. I can roast you
a hundred others.'

'No, I want half of that one.'

'Oh! do as you like, only go away!' cried she.

So the cat ran straight to the kitchen fire, and spit on it and put it
out, and when Udea came to cook the supper she had nothing to light it
with. 'Why did you put the fire out?' asked she.

'Just to show you how nicely you would be able to cook the supper.
Didn't you tell me to do what I liked?'

The girl left the kitchen and climbed up on the roof of the castle and
looked out. Far, far away, so far that she could hardly see it, was the
glow of a fire. 'I will go and fetch a burning coal from there and light
my fire,' thought she, and opened the door of the castle. When she
reached the place where the fire was kindled, a hideous man-eater was
crouching over it.

'Peace be with you, grandfather,' said she.

'The same to you,' replied the man-eater. 'What brings you here, Udea?'

'I came to ask for a lump of burning coal, to light my fire with.'

[Illustration: THE MANEATER]

'Do you want a big lump or a little lump?'

'Why, what difference does it make?' said she.

'If you have a big lump you must give me a strip of your skin from your
ear to your thumb, and if you have a little lump, you must give me a
strip from your ear to your little finger.'

Udea, who thought that one sounded as bad as the other, said she would
take the big lump, and when the man-eater had cut the skin, she went
home again. And as she hastened on a raven beheld the blood on the
ground, and plastered it with earth, and stayed by her till she reached
the castle. And as she entered the door he flew past, and she shrieked
from fright, for up to that moment she had not seen him. In her terror
she called after him, 'May you get the same start as you have given me!'

'Why should you wish me harm,' asked the raven, pausing in his flight,
'when I have done you a service?'

'What service have you done me?' said she.

'Oh, you shall soon see,' replied the raven, and with his bill he
scraped away all the earth he had smeared over the blood and then flew
away.

In the night the man-eater got up, and followed the blood till he came
to Udea's castle. He entered through the gate which she had left open,
and went on till he reached the inside of the house. But here he was
stopped by the seven doors, six of wood and one of iron, and all fast
locked. And he called through them 'Oh Udea, what did you see your
grandfather