And he asked her if he might spend the night beside her fire , as it was too late and too dark to go back to the town . And she answered : ` Certainly you may . But I am afraid of your beasts . May I give them a stroke with my rod , then I shall not be afraid of them . ' And he said she might , for he did not know that she was a witch . So she stretched out her rod , and in a moment the beasts and their master were turned into stone . It happened soon after that the second brother returned from his wanderings and came to the cross-roads where the three birches grew . As he went round the trees he saw that blood poured from the cuts in the bark of two of the trees . Then he wept and said : ` Alas ! both my brothers are dead . ' And he too set out towards the town in which his brother had ruled , and his faithful beasts followed him . When he entered the town , all the people thought it was their own prince come back to them , and they gathered round him , as they had gathered round his youngest brother , and asked him where he had been and why he had not returned . And they led him to the king 's palace , but the princess knew that he was not her husband . So when they were alone together she besought him to go and seek for his brother and bring him home . Calling his beasts round him , he set out and wandered through the woods . And he put his ear down to the earth , to listen if he could hear the sound of his brother 's beasts . And it seemed to him as if he heard a faint sound far off , but he did not know from what direction it came . So he blew on his hunting horn and listened again . And again he heard the sound , and this time it seemed to come from the direction of a fire burning in the wood . So he went towards the fire , and there the old woman was raking sticks and leaves into the embers .
And he asked her if he might spend the night XXXXX her fire .
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