“Then take him to bed,” said she to the cats.
So one of them lighted him to his bedroom, one pulled his shoes off, one his stockings, and at last one of them blew out the candle.
Next morning they returned and helped him out of bed, one put his stockings on for him, one tied his garters, one brought his shoes, one washed him, and one dried his face with her tail.
“That feels very soft!” said Hans.
He, however, had to serve the Cat, and chop some wood every day. And to do that, he had an axe of silver, while the wedge and saw were of silver and the mallet of copper. So he chopped the wood small.
He stayed there in the house and had good meat and drink, but never saw any one but the Tabby-Cat and her servants.
Once she said to him, “Go and mow my meadow, and dry the grass,” and gave him a scythe of silver, and a whetstone of gold, but bade him deliver them up again carefully.
So Hans went thither, and did what he was bidden, and when he had finished the work, he carried the scythe, whetstone, and hay to the house, and asked if it was not yet time for her to give him his reward.
“No,” said the Cat, “you must first do something more for me of the same kind. There is timber of silver, carpenter’s axe, square, and everything that is needful, all of silver, with these build me a small house.”
Then Hans built the small house, and said that he had now done everything, and still he had no horse.