And directly after stood written, in big letters, this title:
THE FAIRY TALE OF DAME CARE.
There was once a mother, to whom the good God had given a son, but she was so poor and lonely that she had nobody who could stand godmother to him. And she sighed, and said, “Where shall I get a godmother from?” Then one evening at dusk there came a woman to her house who was dressed in gray and had a gray veil over her head. She said, “I will be your son’s godmother, and I will take care that he grows up a good man and does not let you starve; but you must give me his soul.”
Then his mother trembled, and said, “Who are you?”
“I am Dame Care,” answered the gray woman; and the mother wept; but as she suffered much from hunger, she gave the woman her son’s soul and she was his godmother.
And her son grew up and worked hard to procure her bread. But as he had no soul, he had no joy and no youth, and often he looked at his mother with reproachful eyes, as if he would ask,
“Mother, where is my soul?”
Then the mother grew sad and went out to find him a soul.
She asked the stars in the sky, “Will you give me a soul?” But they said, “He is too low for that.”
And she asked the flowers on the heath; they said, “He is too ugly.”