The Dwarfs said, “Give us some of it.”
“Willingly,” said she, and divided her bit of bread in two, and gave them the half.
They asked, “What do you here in the forest in the winter time, in your thin dress?”
“Ah,” she answered, “I am to look for a basketful of strawberries, and am not to go home until I can take them with me.”
When she had eaten her bread, they gave her a broom and said, “Sweep away the snow at the back door with it.”
But when she was outside, the three Little Men said to one another, “What shall we give her as she is so good, and has shared her bread with us?”
Then said the first, “My gift is, that every day she shall grow more beautiful.”
The second said, “My gift is, that gold pieces shall fall out of her mouth every time she speaks.”
The third said, “My gift is, that a King shall come and take her to wife.”
The girl, however, did as the Little Men had bidden her, swept away the snow behind the little house with the broom. And what did she find but real ripe strawberries, which came up quite dark-red out of the snow! In her joy she hastily gathered her basket full, thanked the Little Men, shook hands with each of them, and ran home to take the woman what she had longed for so much.