But she knew not what answer to make to this, and stood for a time in doubt. At length she thought, “I will go home and ask if it be I, or if it be not I. They will be sure to know.”
She ran to the door of her own house, but it was shut. Then she knocked at the window and cried, “Hans, is Elsie within?”
“Yes,” answered Hans, “she is within.”
Hereupon she was terrified, and said, “Ah, heavens! Then it is not I,” and went to another door.
But when the people heard the jingling of the bells, they would not open it, and she could get in nowhere. Then she ran out of the village, and no one has seen her since.
THE BREMEN TOWN-MUSICIANS
A certain man had a Donkey, which had carried the corn-sacks to the mill faithfully for many a long year; but his strength was going, and he was growing more and more unfit for work.