“Will you buy wood for kindling, Mother?” asked the girl.
“I have no money, my dear; but if you like I will mend your sleeve,” sadly returned the old Mother, who was still holding the needle and thread with which she had wanted to mend her son’s shirt.
So the old Mother mended the girl’s sleeve, and the girl gave her a bundle of kindling-wood, thanked her kindly, and went on happy because her shoulder was no longer cold.
II
That evening the daughter-in-law said to the Mother:
“We are going out to supper with godmother. Mind you have hot water for me when I come back.”
The daughter-in-law was greedy and always on the look-out to get invited for a meal.
So the others went out, and the old woman was left alone. She took out the kindling-wood which the poor girl had given her, lit the fire on the hearth, and went into the shed for wood.
As she was in the shed fetching the wood, she suddenly heard something in the kitchen a-bustling and a-rustling—“hist, hist!”
“Whoever is that?” called the old Mother from the shed.