Then she called her husband. “Carry this to my father’s house,” she said, “and whatever you do, do not open the lid nor look in it. I will be watching you from my window, and if you attempt to do that I shall surely see you.”
The Evil One took the chest and started off with it, but he had a great deal of curiosity, and he wondered what his wife was sending to her father to make the chest so heavy. He waited, however, until he was well out of sight of the house, and then he put down the chest and prepared to open it.
The girl inside called out, “I see what you are doing! I see what you are doing!”
The Evil One thought it was his wife at home, who was calling after him. “My wife certainly has a keen sight,” he thought to himself; but he picked up the chest again and went on with it.
When he reached the merchant’s house he did not knock nor wait to see anyone. He opened the door and threw the chest inside. “Merchant, here is a present my wife sent you,” he called out. Then he shut the door and went on home.
You may imagine the joy of the good merchant when he opened the chest and found his eldest daughter inside it alive and well.
Not long after the wife said to her husband, “I would like to send another present to my father.”
The Evil One was willing, for he could refuse her nothing, so she had another chest made exactly like the first, and in this she put her second sister.
When all was ready she called her husband and bade him take the chest and carry it to her father. “And whatever you do, be sure you do not open it on the way,” she said. “I shall be watching from my window, and if you do I shall certainly see you.”
The Evil One took up the chest and started off with it. This time he waited until he was in the middle of the wood before he attempted to open it. No sooner had he put it down, however, and laid his hand on the lid than the girl inside called out: