His brothers forbade us to say that he was alive , threatening to slay us if we did . ' Then the King was wroth with those sons , and punished them as he thought best . And afterwards three weddings were celebrated . THE WONDERFUL BIRCH ONCE upon a time there were a man and a woman , who had an only daughter . Now it happened that one of their sheep went astray , and they set out to look for it , and searched and searched , each in a different part of the wood . Then the good wife met a witch , who said to her : ` If you spit , you miserable creature , if you spit into the sheath of my knife , or if you run between my legs , I shall change you into a black sheep . ' The woman neither spat , nor did she run between her legs , but yet the witch changed her into a sheep . Then she made herself look exactly like the woman , and called out to the good man : ` Ho , old man , halloa ! I have found the sheep already ! ' The man thought the witch was really his wife , and he did not know that his wife was the sheep ; so he went home with her , glad at heart because his sheep was found . When they were safe at home the witch said to the man : ` Look here , old man , we must really kill that sheep lest it run away to the wood again . ' The man , who was a peaceable quiet sort of fellow , made no objections , but simply said : ` Good , let us do so . ' The daughter , however , had overheard their talk , and she ran to the flock and lamented aloud : ` Oh , dear little mother , they are going to slaughter you ! ' ` Well , then , if they do slaughter me , ' was the black sheep 's answer , ` eat you neither the meat nor the broth that is made of me , but gather all my bones , and bury them by the edge of the field . ' Shortly after this they took the black sheep from the flock and slaughtered it . The witch made pease-soup of it , and set it before the daughter . But the girl remembered her mother 's warning . She did not touch the soup , but she carried the bones to the edge of the field and buried them there ; and there sprang up on the spot a birch tree -- a very lovely birch tree . Some time had passed away -- who can tell how long they might have been living there ? -- when the witch , to whom a child had been born in the meantime , began to take an ill-will to the man 's daughter , and to torment her in all sorts of ways .
Now it happened XXXXX a great festival was to be held at the palace , and the King had commanded that all the people should be invited , and that this proclamation should be made : ` Come , people all !
If before between by from lest like of that upon