Not many days after , the stepmother 's wish was fulfilled . The emperor took her daughter to wife , and again the rejoicings lasted for three days and three nights . Let us now see what happened to the two little boys . The poor little babies had found no rest even in their graves . In the place where they had been buried there sprang up two beautiful young aspens , and the stepmother , who hated the sight of the trees , which reminded her of her crime , gave orders that they should be uprooted . But the emperor heard of it , and forbade the trees to be touched , saying , ` Let them alone ; I like to see them there ! They are the finest aspens I have ever beheld ! ' And the aspens grew as no aspens had ever grown before . In each day they added a year 's growth , and each night they added a year 's growth , and at dawn , when the stars faded out of the sky , they grew three years ' growth in the twinkling of an eye , and their boughs swept across the palace windows . And when the wind moved them softly , the emperor would sit and listen to them all the day long . The stepmother knew what it all meant , and her mind never ceased from trying to invent some way of destroying the trees . It was not an easy thing , but a woman 's will can press milk out of a stone , and her cunning will overcome heroes . What craft will not do soft words may attain , and if these do not succeed there still remains the resource of tears . One morning the empress sat on the edge of her husband 's bed , and began to coax him with all sorts of pretty ways . It was some time before the bait took , but at length -- even emperors are only men ! ` Well , well , ' he said at last , ` have your way and cut down the trees ; but out of one they shall make a bed for me , and out of the other , one for you ! ' And with this the empress was forced to be content . The aspens were cut down next morning , and before night the new bed had been placed in the emperor 's room . Now when the emperor lay down in it he seemed as if he had grown a hundred times heavier than usual , yet he felt a kind of calm that was quite new to him . But the empress felt as if she was lying on thorns and nettles , and could not close her eyes .
When the emperor was fast asleep , the bed began to crack loudly , and XXXXX the empress each crack had a meaning .
after as at before if in on that to with