I shall come twice more , and then never again , ' said she . In the morning the kitchen-maid related what she had seen and heard , and the King said that next Thursday night he himself would watch in the kitchen and see if this were true , and when it had begun to grow dark he went out into the kitchen to the girl . But though he rubbed his eyes and did everything he could to keep himself awake it was all in vain , for the Bushy Bride crooned and sang till his eyes were fast closed , and when the beautiful young maiden came he was sound asleep and snoring . This time also , as before , she borrowed a brush and brushed her hair with it , and the gold dropped down as she did it ; and again she sent the dog out three times , and when day dawned she departed , but as she was going she said as she had said before , ' I shall come once more , and then never again . ' On the third Thursday night the King once more insisted on keeping watch . Then he set two men to hold him ; each of them was to take an arm , and shake him and jerk him by the arm whenever he seemed to be going to fall asleep ; and he set two men to watch his Bushy Bride . But as the night wore on the Bushy Bride again began to croon and to sing , so that his eyes began to close and his head to droop on one side . Then came the lovely maiden , and got the brush and brushed her hair till the gold dropped from it , and then she sent her Little Snow out to see if it would soon be day , and this she did three times . The third time it was just beginning to grow light , and then she said : ` Out on thee , ugly Bushy Bride , Sleeping so soft by the young King 's side , On sand and stones my bed I make , And my brother sleeps with the cold snake , Unpitied and unwept . ' ` Now I shall never come again , ' she said , and then she turned to go . But the two men who were holding the King by the arms seized his hands and forced a knife into his grasp , and then made him cut her little finger just enough to make it bleed . Thus the true bride was freed . The King then awoke , and she told him all that had taken place , and how her step-mother and step-sister had betrayed her . Then the brother was at once taken out of the snake-pit -- the snakes had never touched him -- and the step-mother and step-sister were flung down into it instead of him . No one can tell how delighted the King was to get rid of that hideous Bushy Bride , and get a Queen who was bright and beautiful as day itself . And now the real wedding was held , and held in such a way that it was heard of and spoken about all over seven kingdoms . The King and his bride drove to church , and Little Snow was in the carriage too . When the blessing was given they went home again , and after that I saw no more of them . -LRB- 28 -RRB- -LRB- 28 -RRB- From J. Moe . SNOWDROP ONCE upon a time , in the middle of winter when the snow-flakes were falling like feathers on the earth , a Queen sat at a window framed in black ebony and sewed .
And as she sewed and gazed out XXXXX the white landscape , she pricked her finger with the needle , and three drops of blood fell on the snow outside , and because the red showed out so well against the white she thought to herself : ` Oh !
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