You are a true friend to me ! You have eaten it all when you stood godmother ; first the top off , then half of it gone , then -- ' ` Will you be quiet ! ' screamed the Cat . ` Another word and I will eat you up . ' ` Clean-gone ' was already on the poor Mouse 's tongue , and scarcely was it out than the Cat made a spring at her , seized and swallowed her . You see that is the way of the world . THE SIX SWANS A king was once hunting in a great wood , and he hunted the game so eagerly that none of his courtiers could follow him . When evening came on he stood still and looked round him , and he saw that he had quite lost himself . He sought a way out , but could find none . Then he saw an old woman with a shaking head coming towards him ; but she was a witch . ` Good woman , ' he said to her , ` can you not show me the way out of the wood ? ' ` Oh , certainly , Sir King , ' she replied , ' I can quite well do that , but on one condition , which if you do not fulfil you will never get out of the wood , and will die of hunger . ' ` What is the condition ? ' asked the King . ' I have a daughter , ' said the old woman , ` who is so beautiful that she has not her equal in the world , and is well fitted to be your wife ; if you will make her lady-queen I will show you the way out of the wood . ' The King in his anguish of mind consented , and the old woman led him to her little house where her daughter was sitting by the fire . She received the King as if she were expecting him , and he saw that she was certainly very beautiful ; but she did not please him , and he could not look at her without a secret feeling of horror . As soon as he had lifted the maiden on to his horse the old woman showed him the way , and the King reached his palace , where the wedding was celebrated . The King had already been married once , and had by his first wife seven children , six boys and one girl , whom he loved more than anything in the world . And now , because he was afraid that their stepmother might not treat them well and might do them harm , he put them in a lonely castle that stood in the middle of a wood .
It lay so hidden , and the way to it was so hard to find , XXXXX he himself could not have found it out had not a wise-woman given him a reel of thread which possessed a marvellous property : when he threw it before him it unwound itself and showed him the way .
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