The old woman looked at her for a moment , and then she said : ` Well , that must be as you like ; but as you have worked faithfully for me I will give you a reward . Go now into the loft above the store house and there you will find many caskets . Choose the one which pleases you best , but be careful not to open it till you have set it in the place where you wish it to remain . ' The girl left the room to go to the loft , and as soon as she got outside , she found all the cats waiting for her . Walking in procession , as was their custom , they followed her into the loft , which was filled with caskets big and little , plain and splendid . She lifted up one and looked at it , and then put it down to examine another yet more beautiful . Which should she choose , the yellow or the blue , the red or the green , the gold or the silver ? She hesitated long , and went first to one and then to another , when she heard the cats ' voices calling : ` Take the black ! take the black ! ' The words make her look round -- she had seen no black casket , but as the cats continued their cry she peered into several corners that had remained unnoticed , and at length discovered a little black box , so small and so black , that it might easily have been passed over . ` This is the casket that pleases me best , mistress , ' said the girl , carrying it into the house . And the old woman smiled and nodded , and bade her go her way . So the girl set forth , after bidding farewell to the cows and the cats and the sparrows , who all wept as they said good-bye . She walked on and on and on , till she reached the flowery meadow , and there , suddenly , something happened , she never knew what , but she was sitting on the wall of the well in her stepmother 's yard . Then she got up and entered the house . The woman and her daughter stared as if they had been turned into stone ; but at length the stepmother gasped out : ` So you are alive after all ! Well , luck was ever against me ! And where have you been this year past ? ' Then the girl told how she had taken service in the under-world , and , beside her wages , had brought home with her a little casket , which she would like to set up in her room . ` Give me the money , and take the ugly little box off to the outhouse , ' cried the woman , beside herself with rage , and the girl , quite frightened at her violence , hastened away , with her precious box clasped to her bosom .
The outhouse was in a very dirty state , as no one had been near it since the girl had fallen down the well ; but she scrubbed and swept till everything was clean again , and then she placed the little casket XXXXX a small shelf in the corner .
So at for in like of on that till with