"My sister, little Margery,"
Then Margery laid her head on her knee, and sobbed out loud; but the man said, "I shall go out—I must look at the bird quite close."
"Oh, do not go," said the wife; "it seems to me as if the whole house shook, and was in flames."
But the man went out and watched the bird, which still went on singing—
"Gathered up all my bones,
Tied them in a silk handkerchief,
And laid them under the Juniper-tree:
Kywitt! Kywitt! what a beautiful bird am I!"
After that, the bird let the gold chain fall, and it fell right on to the man's neck, fitting exactly round it. He went in and said, "See what a beautiful bird that is—it has given me such a splendid gold chain!"
But the wife was frightened, and fell flat down on the floor, and her cap dropped off her head.
Then the bird sang again—
"My mother, she killed me;"
"Oh, that I were a thousand feet under the earth, so that I might not hear!"