“No,” said the man; “I can’t spare you.”
“Well, then, let me fill a chest with clothes and money, and you shall carry it to her.”
“Very well,” said the man; “have it ready by to-morrow morning.”
So the girl put linen and gold into a chest. Then she made her eldest sister get in, and shut down the lid.
“Now,” she said to her husband, “you must not set down the chest at all: remember, I can see you all the way. Go straight there and back again, for I want you at home.”
The man put the chest on his head and set off. After a time he began to want to put down his burden for a little, and said to himself:—
“My wife can’t possibly see me; there’s this hill between me and her”: and he began to set down the chest.
“Do you think I can’t see you?” a voice said. “Silly man, I can see you everywhere.”
“Oh dear, oh dear,” said the man to himself, “what a clever wife mine is! She can see me even through a hill. And how fond of me she is! She knows what I am doing wherever I am.” So he staggered on to his mother-in-law’s, threw down the box, and went home again.
A little while after the second sister was sent home in the same way, and now the girl began to think how she could get away herself. One evening she said to her husband:—