She said, no, she would not sell it, but if the Bride would grant her one thing she should have it, and that was, leave to sleep one night in her Bridegroom’s chamber. The Bride gave her permission because the dress was so pretty, and she had never had one like it.
When it was evening, she said to her Bridegroom, “That silly girl will sleep in your room.”
“If you are willing so am I,” said he.
She, however, gave him a glass of wine in which she had poured a sleeping-draught. So the Bridegroom and the scullery-maid went to sleep in the room, and he slept so soundly that she could not waken him.
She wept the whole night and cried, “I set you free when you were in an Iron Stove in the wild forest. I sought you, and walked over a Glass Mountain, and three sharp swords, and a great lake before I found you, and yet you will not hear me!”
The servants sat by the chamber-door, and heard how she thus wept the whole night through, and in the morning they told it to their lord.
And the next evening, when she had washed up, she opened the second nut, and a far more beautiful dress was within it. When the Bride beheld it, she wished to buy that also. But the girl would not take money, and begged that she might once again sleep in the Bridegroom’s chamber. The Bride, however, gave him a sleeping-drink, and he slept so soundly that he could hear nothing.
But the scullery-maid wept the whole night long, and cried, “I set you free when you were in an Iron Stove in the wild forest. I sought you, and walked over a Glass Mountain, and over three sharp swords and a great lake before I found you, and yet you will not hear me!”
The servants sat by the chamber-door and heard her weeping the whole night through, and in the morning informed their lord of it.
And on the third evening, when she had washed up, she opened the third nut, and within it was a still more beautiful dress which was stiff with pure gold.