said to herself, "How fortunate it was that I woke! They would
have eaten me up if I had been asleep." The miserable little wretch
actually talked as if she had kept them out! If she had done her work
in the day, she would have slept through the terrors of the darkness,
and awaked fearless; whereas now, she had in the storehouse of her
heart a whole harvest of agonies, reaped from the dun fields of the
night!

They were neither wolves nor hyenas which had caused her such dismay,
but creatures of the air, more frightful still, which, as soon as the
smoke of the burning fir-wood ceased to spread itself abroad, and the
sun was a sufficient distance down the sky, and the lone cold woman was
out, came flying and howling about the cottage, trying to get in at
every door and window. Down the chimney they would have got, but that
at the heart of the fire there always lay a certain fir-cone, which
looked like solid gold red-hot, and which, although it might easily get
covered up with ashes, so as to be quite invisible, was continually in
a glow fit to kindle all the fir-cones in the world; this it was which
had kept the horrible birds--some say they have a claw at the tip of
every wing-feather--from tearing the poor naughty princess to pieces,
and gobbling her up.

When she rose and looked about her, she was dismayed to see what a
state the cottage was in. The fire was out, and the windows were all
dim with the wings and claws of the dirty birds, while the bed from
which she had just risen was brown and withered, and half its purple
bells had fallen. But she consoled herself that she could set all to
rights in a few minutes--only she must breakfast first. And, sure
enough, there was a basin of the delicious bread and milk ready for her
in the hole of the wall!

After she had eaten it, she felt comfortable, and sat for a long time
building castles in the air--till she was actually hungry again,
without having done an atom of work. She ate again, and was idle again,
and ate again. Then it grew dark, and she went trembling to bed, for
now she remembered the horrors of the last night. This time she never
slept at all, but spent the long hours in grievous terror, for the
noises were worse than before. She vowed she would not pass another
night in such a hateful haunted old shed for all the ugly women,
witches, and ogresses in the wide world. In the morning, however, she
fell asleep, and slept late.

Breakfast was of course her f