THE IRON STOVE
In the days when wishing was having, a King’s Son was enchanted by an old Witch, and shut up in an Iron Stove in a forest. There he passed many years, and no one could deliver him.
Then a King’s Daughter came into the forest, who had lost herself and could not find her father’s kingdom again. After she had wandered about for nine days, she at length came to the Iron Stove. Then a voice issued from it, and asked her, “Whence come you, and whither go you?”
She answered, “I have lost my father’s kingdom, and cannot get home again.”
Then a voice inside the Iron Stove said, “I will help you to get home, and that indeed most swiftly, if you will promise to do what I desire of you. I am the son of a far greater King than your father, and I will marry you.”
Then was she afraid, and thought, “Alas! What use could I have with an Iron Stove?” But as she much wished to get home to her father, she promised to do as he desired.
He said, “You shall return here, and bring a knife with you, and scrape a hole in the iron.”
Then he gave her a companion who walked near her, but did not speak. In two hours he took her home. There was great joy in the castle when the King’s Daughter came back, and the old King fell on her neck, and kissed her.