“That is my reward to you because you have been a good servant,” cried Mother Hulda. Then the gate closed, and the girl ran along the road and quickly came to the house of her stepmother.
As she entered the gate the cock crowed loudly, “Cock-a-doodle-doo! Our golden girl’s come home again.”
She entered the house, and now her mother and sister were glad to see her because she was covered with gold. They asked her where she had been and who had given her all that treasure.
The girl told them. Then they were filled with envy.
“Here! Take your spindle,” cried the widow to her own daughter. “Throw it in the well and jump down after it. If Mother Hulda has rewarded your sister in this way what will she not do for you? No doubt you will come home all covered with diamonds and rubies.”
The ugly girl took her spindle and threw it down the well, as her mother bade her, and jumped in after it. Down, down she went, just as her sister had done, and there was the green meadow with the road leading across it.
The girl hurried along the road, for she was in haste to reach Mother Hulda’s house and get a reward, and presently she came to the oven.
“Take us out! Take us out!” cried the loaves inside. “We will burn if we are left in here any longer.”
“Why should I blacken my hands for you?” cried the girl. “Stay where you are, and if you burn no one will be the worse for it but yourselves.” And so saying she went on her way.
A little farther she came to the apple-tree, and its boughs were bent with the weight of the fruit it bore.