able to walk on glass or ice, and
to climb the steepest places. And here is a spinning-wheel, with which
you will be able to spin moss into silk. When you leave me you will
reach a glass mountain. Put on the shoes that I have given you and with
them you will be able to climb it quite easily. At the summit you will
find the palace of the white wolf.'

Then the princess set out, and before long she reached the glass
mountain, and at the summit she found the white wolf's palace, as the
sun had said.

But no one recognised her, as she had disguised herself as an old woman,
and had wound a shawl round her head. Great preparations were going on
in the palace for the wedding, which was to take place next day. Then
the princess, still disguised as an old woman, took out her
spinning-wheel, and began to spin moss into silk. And as she spun the
new bride passed by, and seeing the moss turn into silk, she said to the
old woman: 'Little mother, I wish you would give me that
spinning-wheel.'

[Illustration: The Bride wishes to buy the Spinning-Wheel]

And the princess answered, 'I will give it to you if you will allow me
to sleep to-night on the mat outside the prince's door.'

And the bride replied, 'Yes, you may sleep on the mat outside the door.'

So the princess gave her the spinning-wheel. And that night, winding
the shawl all round her, so that no one could recognise her, she lay
down on the mat outside the white wolf's door. And when everyone in the
palace was asleep she began to tell the whole of her story. She told how
she had been one of three sisters, and that she had been the youngest
and the fairest of the three, and that her father had betrothed her to a
white wolf. And she told how she had gone first to the wedding of one
sister, and then with her husband to the wedding of the other sister,
and how her mother had ordered the servant to throw the white fur skin
into the kitchen fire. And then she told of her wanderings through the
forest; and of how she had sought the white wolf weeping; and how the
wind and star and moon and sun had befriended her, and had helped her to
reach his palace. And when the white wolf heard all the story, he knew
that it was his first wife, who had sought him, and had found him, after
such great dangers and difficulties.

But he said nothing, for he waited till the next day, when many
guests--kings and princes from far countries--were coming to his
wedding. Then, when all the guests