So the three began to live together, but badly and discordantly. The daughter-in-law was ill-tempered, spiteful, greedy and proud.
Now there was a mountain peak there as high as the clouds, and one day the daughter-in-law bade the old Mother go up and fetch her snow from the summit for her to wash in.
“There is no path up there,” said the Mother.
“Take the goat and let her guide you. Where she can go up, there you can tumble down,” said the daughter-in-law.
The son was there at the time, but he only laughed at the words, simply to please his wife.
This so grieved the Mother that she set out at once for the peak to fetch the snow, because she was tired of life. As she went her way she thought to ask God to help her; but she changed her mind and said: “For then God would know that my son is undutiful.”
But God gave her help all the same, so that she safely brought the snow back to her daughter-in-law from the cloud-capped peak.
Next day the daughter-in-law gave her a fresh order:
“Go out on to the frozen lake. In the middle of the lake there is a hole. Catch me a carp there for dinner.”
“The ice will give way under me, and I shall perish in the lake,” replied the old Mother.