doing?'

'I saw him spread silk under him, and silk over him, and lay himself
down in a four-post bed.'

When he heard that, the man-eater broke in one door, and laughed and
went away.

And the second night he came back, and asked her again what she had seen
her grandfather doing, and she answered him as before, and he broke in
another door, and laughed and went away, and so each night till he
reached the seventh door. Then the maiden wrote a letter to her
brothers, and bound it round the neck of a pigeon, and said to it, 'Oh,
thou pigeon that servedst my father and my grandfather, carry this
letter to my brothers, and come back at once.' And the pigeon flew away.

It flew and it flew and it flew till it found the brothers. The eldest
unfastened the letter from the pigeon's neck, and read what his sister
had written: 'I am in a great strait, my brothers. If you do not rescue
me to-night, to-morrow I shall be no longer living, for the man-eater
has broken open six doors, and only the iron door is left. So haste,
haste, post haste.'

'Quick, quick! my brothers,' cried he.

'What is the matter?' asked they.

'If we cannot reach our sister to-night, to-morrow she will be the prey
of the man-eater.'

And without more words they sprang on their horses, and rode like the
wind.

The gate of the castle was thrown down, and they entered the court and
called loudly to their sister. But the poor girl was so ill with fear
and anxiety that she could not even speak. Then the brothers dismounted
and passed through the six open doors, till they stood before the iron
one, which was still shut. 'Udea, open!' they cried, 'it is only your
brothers!' And she arose and unlocked the door, and throwing herself on
the neck of the eldest burst into tears.

'Tell us what has happened,' he said, 'and how the man-eater traced you
here.'

'It is all the cat's fault,' replied Udea. 'She put out my fire so that
I could not cook. All about a bean! I ate one and forgot to give her any
of it.'

'But we told you so particularly,' said the eldest brother, 'never to
eat anything without sharing it with the cat.'

'Yes, but I tell you I forgot,' answered Udea.

'Does the man-eater come here every night?' asked the brothers.

'Every night,' said Udea, 'and he breaks one door in and then goes
away.'

Then all the brothers cried together, 'We will dig a great hole, and
fill it with burning wood, and spread a covering over the top; and when