At last she came to a small house.
In the doorway sat an old woman who had such large teeth that the girl felt afraid of her and turned to run away.
Then the old woman cried, "What do you fear, my child? Come in and live here with me. If you will do the work about the house, I will be very kind to you. Only take care to make my bed well.
You must shake it and pound it so that the feathers will fly about. Then the children down on the earth will say that snowflakes are falling, for I am Mother Frost."
The old woman spoke so kindly that she won the maiden's heart.
"I will gladly work for you," she said.
The girl did her work well, and each day she shook up the bed until the feathers flew about like snowflakes.
She was very happy with Mother Frost, who never spoke an angry word.
After the girl had stayed a long time with the kind old woman, she began to feel homesick.
She could not help it, though her life with Mother Frost had been so happy.