After that, the gray squirrel came every day at exactly the same time. He sat on Katrina’s shoulder and chattered about his busy life in the great forest; and in turn Katrina told him about her being shut up in the tower by her cruel uncle.
“I would help you if I could,” said the squirrel one day, growing so angry over her imprisonment that he tried to bite the iron bars of the window, and in doing so, broke off two of his best front teeth. From that time, Princess Katrina gave him more of her food, because he could not crack nuts so well now. “Elf will mend my teeth some day, elf will mend them,” said the squirrel cheerfully.
On the afternoon of the seventh day, the cruel uncle unlocked the door of the tower-room and stood before the princess. He was covered with dust and cobwebs from coming through the unused rooms and dark passages which led to the tower.
“Is my dear niece ready to obey me and marry King Rupert?” the uncle asked in a make-believe anxious voice.
Princess Katrina held up her head courageously. “Never!” she said: “I will never consent to marry that dreadful old man.” Her golden hair gleamed like sunshine against the dark gray stone walls.
She was so brave and fair standing there in her royal blue velvet gown, facing him, that her uncle was half afraid. “It is for your good,” he said in a shaking voice, the keys jingling in his hand.
Katrina answered him quickly: “It is for your gain.”
Then the uncle cried out fast, with blazing eyes: “This-next-week-you-shall-live-in-the-lower-room-and-have-food-only-twice-a-day-and-only-two-candles-for-the-night. At-the-end-of-a-week-I-will-visit-you-and-if-you-refuse-to-marry-King-Rupert-I-will-put-you-where-you-have-a-harder-time.” Seizing her wrist, he dragged her roughly behind him through the door and down the narrow, winding stone steps to the room below, thrust her into it, and locked the creaking, heavy door upon her.
That night Princess Katrina was dreadfully afraid. A wild storm of wind and rain shook the tower and made her candle-light flicker. Once when something gray brushed against the window she shrieked aloud; but, watching, she saw that the gray object stopped on a branch of the great oak-tree outside the window, and that it was a large, soft owl, as tall as a man. The owl sat there a long time, staring at the candle-light with blinking yellow eyes that had tiny black spots at their centre, and the princess was comforted by the sense of companionship.
The next morning when the food and candles were brought, a package was put with them, inside the door.