amsel was alone, the little man came the third time,
and said, "What will you give me if I again spin all this straw for
you?"

"I have nothing more to give you," answered the girl.

"Then promise, if you become queen, to give me your first child."

"Who knows how that may be, or how things may turn out between now and
then?" thought the girl, but in her perplexity she could not help
herself: so she promised the little man what he desired, and he spun
all the straw into gold.

When the king came in the morning, and saw that his orders had been
obeyed, he married the maiden, and the beautiful miller's daughter
became a queen. After a year had passed she brought a lovely baby into
the world, but quite forgot the little man, till he walked suddenly
into her chamber, and said, "Give me what you promised me." The queen
was frightened, and offered the dwarf all the riches of the kingdom if
he would only leave her her child; but he answered, "No; something
living is dearer to me than all the treasures of the world."

Then the queen began to grieve and to weep so bitterly, that the
little man took pity upon her and said, "I will give you three days;
if in that time you can find out my name, you shall keep the child."

All night long the queen thought over every name she had ever heard,
and sent a messenger through the kingdom, to inquire what names were
usually given to people in that country. When, next day, the little
man came again, she began with Caspar, Melchoir, Balthazar, and
repeated, each after each, all the names she knew or had heard of; but
at each one the little man said, "That is not my name."

The second day she again sent round about in all directions, to ask
how the people were called, and repeated to the little man the
strangest names she could hear of or imagine: to each he answered
always, "That is not my name."

The third day the messenger returned and said, "I have not been able
to find a single new name; but as I came over a high mountain by a
wood, where the fox and the hare bid each other good-night, I saw a
little house, and before the house was burning a little fire, and
round the fire danced a very funny little man, who hopped upon one
leg, and cried out:--

"To-day I brew, to-morrow I bake,
Next day the queen's child I shall take;
How glad I am that nobody knows
My name is Rumpelstilzchen!"

You may guess how joyful the queen was at hearing this; and when, soon
after, t