Brick Fairy Tales: Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Hansel and Gretel, and More (40 page)

but still he had not gold enough;

and he had the miller’s daughter taken into a still larger room full of straw,

and said, “You must spin this, too, in the course of this night; but if you succeed, you shall be my wife.”

“Even if she be a miller’s daughter,” thought he, “I could not find a richer wife in the whole world.”

When the girl was alone the manikin came again for the third time, and said, “What will you give me if I spin the straw for you this time also?”

“I have nothing left that I could give,” answered the girl.

“Then promise me, if you should become Queen, your first child.”

“Who knows whether that will ever happen?” thought the miller’s daughter;

and, not knowing how else to help herself in this strait, she promised the manikin what he wanted,

and for that he once more span the straw into gold.

And when the King came in the morning, and found all as he had wished, he took her in marriage, and the pretty miller’s daughter became a Queen.

A year after, she had a beautiful child, and she never gave a thought to the manikin.

But suddenly he came into her room, and said, “Now give me what you promised.” The Queen was horror-struck,

and offered the manikin all the riches of the kingdom if he would leave her the child.