Then he said,
"My house is a long way in the wood."
She began to make excuses, and said she could not find the way to it; but the bridegroom said,
"You must come and pay me a visit next Sunday; I have already invited company, and I will strew ashes on the path through the wood, so that you will be sure to find it."
When Sunday came, and the girl set out on her way, she felt very uneasy without knowing exactly why; and she filled both pockets full of peas and lentils. There were ashes strewed on the path through the wood, but, nevertheless, at each step she cast to the right and left a few peas on the ground. So she went on the whole day until she came to the middle of the wood, where it was the darkest, and there stood a lonely house, not pleasant in her eyes, for it was dismal and unhomelike. She walked in, but there was no one there, and the greatest stillness reigned. Suddenly she heard a voice cry,
"Turn back, turn back, thou pretty bride,
Within this house thou must not bide,
For here do evil things betide."
The girl glanced round, and perceived that the voice came from a bird who was hanging in a cage by the wall. And again it cried,
"Turn back, turn back, thou pretty bride,
Within this house thou must not bide,
For here do evil things betide."
Then the pretty bride went on from one room into another through the whole house, but it was quite empty, and no soul to be found in it.
At last she reached the cellar, and there sat a very old woman nodding her head.