I am only a poor girl , ' she answered , ` and am rinsing out my yarn in the river . ' Then the King was sorry for her , and when he saw how beautiful she was he said : ` Will you come away with me ? ' ` Most gladly , ' she replied , for she knew how willingly she would leave her stepmother and sister , and how glad they would be to be rid of her . So she stepped into the carriage and drove away with the King , and when they reached his palace the wedding was celebrated with much splendour . So all turned out just as the three little Dwarfs had said . After a year the Queen gave birth to a little son . When her stepmother heard of her good fortune she came to the palace with her daughter by way of paying a call , and took up her abode there . Now one day , when the King was out and nobody else near , the bad woman took the Queen by her head , and the daughter took her by her heels , and they dragged her from her bed , and flung her out of the window into the stream which flowed beneath it . Then the stepmother laid her ugly daughter in the Queen 's place , and covered her up with the clothes , so that nothing of her was seen . When the King came home and wished to speak to his wife the woman called out : ` Quietly , quietly I this will never do ; your wife is very ill , you must let her rest all to-day . ' The King suspected no evil , and did n't come again till next morning . When he spoke to his wife and she answered him , instead of the usual piece of gold a toad jumped out of her mouth . Then he asked what it meant , and the old woman told him it was nothing but weakness , and that she would soon be all right again . But that same evening the scullion noticed a duck swimming up the gutter , saying as it passed : ` What does the King , I pray you tell , Is he awake or sleeps he well ? ' and receiving no reply , it continued : ` And all my guests , are they asleep ? ' and the Scullion answered : ` Yes , one and all they slumber deep . ' Then the Duck went on : ` And what about my baby dear ? ' and he answered : ` Oh , it sleeps soundly , never fear . ' Then the Duck assumed the Queen 's shape , went up to the child 's room , tucked him up comfortably in his cradle , and then swam back down the gutter again , in the likeness of a Duck . This was repeated for two nights , and on the third the Duck said to the Scullion : ` Go and tell the King to swing his sword three times over me on the threshold . '
The Scullion did as the creature bade him , and the King came with his sword and swung it three times XXXXX the bird , and lo and behold !
After by for from in into near of on over