"What, thou low-born mortal," cried the Queen; "how didst thou dare to wed my son?"
"It was his choice," said Anima, "and I am now his wife. Surely you will let me see him once more."
"Well," said the Queen, "if thou canst do what I demand of thee thou shalt see my son again. And first go into that barn where my stupid stewards have poured together all the wheat and oats and rice into one great heap. If by nightfall thou canst separate them into three heaps perhaps I may grant thy request."
So Anima was led to the great barn of the Queen and there was a huge heap of grain all mixed together, and she was left alone, and the barn was closed upon her. Then she bethought herself of the twig that the Queen's sister had given her, and she struck it thrice upon the ground, whereupon thousands of ants came out of the ground and began to work upon the heap of grain, some of them taking the wheat to one corner, some the oats to another, and the rest carrying off the grains of rice to a third. By nightfall all the grain had been separated, and when the Queen came to let out Anima she found the task had been done.
"Thou hast had help," she cried; "we'll see to-morrow if thou canst do something by thyself."
Next day the Queen took her into a large loft at the top of the palace almost filled with feathers of geese, of eider ducks, and of swans, and from her cupboard she took twelve mattresses and said:
"See these mattresses; by the end of the day thou must fill four of them with swans' feathers, four of them with eider-down, and the rest with feathers of geese. Do that and then we will see."
With that she left Anima and closed and locked the door behind her. And Anima remembered what the other Queen's sister had given her, and took out the raven's feather and waved it thrice. Immediately birds, and birds, and birds came flying through the windows, and each of them picked out different kinds of feathers and placed them in the mattresses, so that long before night the twelve mattresses were filled as the Queen had ordered.
Again at nightfall the Queen came in, and as soon as she saw that the second task had been carried out, she said:
"Again thou hast had help; to-morrow thou shalt have something to do which thou alone canst carry out."