She, however, was sorely troubled, and said, “Dear Father, what I have suffered! I should never have got home again from the great wild forest, if I had not come to an Iron Stove. But I have been forced to give my word that I will go back to it, set it free, and marry it.”
Then the old King was so terrified that he all but fainted, for he had only this one daughter. They, therefore, resolved they would send, in her place, the miller’s daughter, who was very beautiful. They took her there, gave her a knife, and said she was to scrape at the Iron Stove. So she scraped at it for four-and-twenty hours, but could not bring off the least morsel of it.
When day dawned, a voice in the stove said, “It seems to me it is day outside.”
Then she answered, “It seems so to me too. I fancy I hear the noise of my father’s mill.”
“So you are a miller’s daughter! Then go your way at once. Let the King’s Daughter come here.”
She went away at once, and told the old King that the man outside there would have none of her—he wanted the King’s Daughter.
They, however, still had a swineherd’s daughter, who was even prettier than the miller’s daughter, and they determined to give her a piece of gold to go to the Iron Stove, instead of the King’s Daughter. So she was taken thither, and she also had to scrape for four-and-twenty hours. She, likewise, made nothing of it.
When day broke, a voice inside the stove cried, “It seems to me it is day outside!”
Then answered she, “So it seems to me. I fancy I hear my father’s horn blowing.”
“Then you are a swineherd’s daughter! Go away at once. Tell the King’s Daughter to come, and tell her all must be done as was promised. And if she does not come, everything in the kingdom shall be ruined, and destroyed, and not one stone be left standing on another.”