He looked for a stream but none was to be seen , and his tongue grew more parched every moment . At length his eyes fell on the apple , which all this while he had been holding in his hand , and in his thirst he forgot what the hermit had told him , and instead of eating merely his own half , he ate up the old woman 's also ; after that he went to sleep . When he woke up he saw something strange lying on a bank a little way off , amidst long trails of pink roses . The old man got up , rubbed his eyes , and went to see what it was , when , to his surprise and joy , it proved to be a little girl about two years old , with a skin as pink and white as the roses above her . He took her gently in his arms , but she did not seem at all frightened , and only jumped and crowed with delight ; and the old man wrapped his cloak round her , and set off for home as fast as his legs would carry him . When they were close to the cottage where they lived he laid the child in a pail that was standing near the door , and ran into the house , crying : ` Come quickly , wife , quickly , for I have brought you a daughter , with hair of gold and eyes like stars ! ' At this wonderful news the old woman flew downstairs , almost tumbling down ill her eagerness to see the treasure ; but when her husband led her to the pail it was perfectly empty ! The old man was nearly beside himself with horror , while his wife sat down and sobbed with grief and disappointment . There was not a spot round about which they did not search , thinking that somehow the child might have got out of the pail and hidden itself for fun ; but the little girl was not there , and there was no sign of her . ` Where can she be ? ' moaned the old man , in despair . ` Oh , why did I ever leave her , even for a moment ? Have the fairies taken her , or has some wild beast carried her off ? ' And they began their search all over again ; but neither fairies nor wild beasts did they meet with , and with sore hearts they gave it up at last and turned sadly into the hut . And what had become of the baby ? Well , finding herself left alone in a strange place she began to cry with fright , and an eagle hovering near , heard her , and went to see what the sound came from . When he beheld the fat pink and white creature he thought of his hungry little ones at home , and swooping down he caught her up in his claws and was soon flying with her over the tops of the trees . In a few minutes he reached the one in which he had built his nest , and laying little Wildrose -LRB- for so the old man had called her -RRB- among his downy young eaglets , he flew away . The eaglets naturally were rather surprised at this strange animal , so suddenly popped down in their midst , but instead of beginning to eat her , as their father expected , they nestled up close to her and spread out their tiny wings to shield her from the sun . Now , in the depths of the forest where the eagle had built his nest , there ran a stream whose waters were poisonous , and on the banks of this stream dwelt a horrible lindworm with seven heads .
The lindworm had often watched the eagle flying about the top of the tree , carrying food to his young ones and , accordingly , he watched carefully XXXXX the moment when the eaglets began to try their wings and to fly away from the nest .
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