birch tree which grew upon the mother's grave. There they received all
sorts of treasures and riches, three sacks full of gold, and as much
silver, and a splendid steed, which bore them home to the palace. There
they lived a long time together, and the young wife bore a son to the
Prince. Immediately word was brought to the witch that her daughter
had borne a son--for they all believed the young King's wife to be the
witch's daughter.

'So, so,' said the witch to herself; 'I had better away with my gift for
the infant, then.'

And so saying she set out. Thus it happened that she came to the bank of
the river, and there she saw the beautiful golden hemlock growing in the
middle of the bridge, and when she began to cut it down to take to her
grandchild, she heard a voice moaning:

'Alas! dear mother, do not cut me so!'

'Are you here?' demanded the witch.

'Indeed I am, dear little mother,' answered the daughter 'They threw me
across the river to make a bridge of me.'

In a moment the witch had the bridge shivered to atoms, and then she
hastened away to the palace. Stepping up to the young Queen's bed, she
began to try her magic arts upon her, saying:

'Spit, you wretch, on the blade of my knife; bewitch my knife's blade
for me, and I shall change you into a reindeer of the forest.'

'Are you there again to bring trouble upon me?' said the young woman.

She neither spat nor did anything else, but still the witch changed her
into a reindeer, and smuggled her own daughter into her place as the
Prince's wife. But now the child grew restless and cried, because it
missed its mother's care. They took it to the court, and tried to pacify
it in every conceivable way, but its crying never ceased.

'What makes the child so restless?' asked the Prince, and he went to a
wise widow woman to ask her advice.

'Ay, ay, your own wife is not at home,' said the widow woman; 'she is
living like a reindeer in the wood; you have the witch's daughter for a
wife now, and the witch herself for a mother-in-law.'

'Is there any way of getting my own wife back from the wood again?'
asked the Prince.

'Give me the child,' answered the widow woman. 'I'll take it with me
to-morrow when I go to drive the cows to the wood. I'll make a rustling
among the birch leaves and a trembling among the aspens--perhaps the boy
will grow quiet when he hears it.'

'Yes, take the child away, take it to the wood with you to quiet it,'
said the Prince,