The wedding was at once celebrated and there was feasting and merry-making throughout the kingdom for six weeks . Some time afterward the Prince and his bride were sitting in the garden , when a crow said to them : `` Ungrateful creatures ! Have you forgotten the two poor maidens who helped you in your distress ? Must they spin gold flax for ever ? Have no pity on the old witch . The three maidens are princesses , whom she stole away when they were children together , with all the silver utensils , which she turned into gold flax . Poison were her fittest punishment . '' The Prince was ashamed of having forgotten his promise and set out at once , and by great good fortune reached the hut when the old woman was away . The maidens had dreamed that he was coming , and were ready to go with him , but first they made a cake in which they put poison , and left it on a table where the old woman was likely to see it when she returned . She did see it , and thought it looked so tempting that she greedily ate it up and at once died . In the secret chamber were found fifty wagon-loads of gold flax , and as much more was discovered buried . The hut was razed to the ground , and the Prince and his bride and her two sisters lived happily ever after . THE TERRIBLE HEAD Once upon a time there was a king whose only child was a girl . Now the King had been very anxious to have a son , or at least a grandson , to come after him , but he was told by a prophet whom he consulted that his own daughter 's son should kill him . This news terrified him so much that he determined never to let his daughter be married , for he thought it was better to have no grandson at all than to be killed by his grandson . He therefore called his workmen together , and bade them dig a deep round hole in the earth , and then he had a prison of brass built in the hole , and then , when it was finished , he locked up his daughter . No man ever saw her , and she never saw even the fields and the sea , but only the sky and the sun , for there was a wide open window in the roof of the house of brass . So the Princess would sit looking up at the sky , and watching the clouds float across , and wondering whether she should ever get out of her prison . Now one day it seemed to her that the sky opened above her , and a great shower of shining gold fell through the window in the roof , and lay glittering in her room . Not very long after , the Princess had a baby , a little boy , but when the King her father heard of it he was very angry and afraid , for now the child was born that should be his death .
Yet , cowardly as he was , he had not quite the heart XXXXX kill the Princess and her baby outright , but he had them put in a huge brass-bound chest and thrust out to sea , that they might either be drowned or starved , or perhaps come to a country where they would be out of his way .
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