you a
little visit."

"Very well, grandson, but before you go, I wish you would do me a little
favor. Your brother did it for me before he left, and cured me, but it
has come back on me again. I am subject to very severe pains along the
left side of my backbone, all the way from my shoulder blade down to
where my ribs attach to my backbone, and the only way I get any relief
from the pain is to have some one kick me along the side." (She was a
witch, and concealed in her robe a long sharp steel spike. It was placed
so that the last kick they would give her, their foot would hit the
spike and they would instantly drop off into a swoon, as if dead.)

"If I won't hurt you too much, grandmother, I certainly will be glad to
do it for you," said the young man, little thinking he would be the one
to get hurt.

"No, grandson, don't be afraid of hurting me; the harder you kick the
longer the pain stays away." She laid down on the floor and rolled over
on to her right side, so he could get a good chance to kick the left
side where she said the pain was located.

As he moved back to give the first kick, he glanced along the floor
and he noticed a long object wrapped in a blanket, lying against the
opposite wall. He thought it looked strange and was going to stop and
investigate, but just then the witch cried out as if in pain. "Hurry up,
grandson, I am going to die if you don't hurry and start in kicking." "I
can investigate after I get through with her," thought he, so he started
in kicking and every kick he would give her she would cry: "Harder, kick
harder." He had to kick seven times before he would get to the end of
the pain, so he let out as hard as he could drive, and when he came to
the last kick he hit the spike, and driving it through his foot, fell
down in a dead swoon, and was rolled up in a blanket by the witch and
placed beside his brother at the opposite side of the room.

When the second brother failed to return, the third went in search of
the two missing ones. He fared no better than the second one, as he
met the old witch who served him in a similar manner as she had his two
brothers.

"Ha! Ha!" she laughed, when she caught the third, "I have only one more
of them to catch, and when I get them I will keep them all here a
year, and then I will turn them into horses and sell them back to their
sister. I hate her, for I was going to try and keep house for them and
marry the oldest one, but she got ahead of me