The princess shook her head and said, “All the doors and windows are fastened. Besides, we are under the sea.”
The Ink-Bottle Babies looked out of the window, and sure enough, fishes were swimming past.
Suddenly the princess said, “Hush, the little dwarf is coming. Run Babies, and hide, every one of you!”
Then the Ink-Bottle Babies ran upstairs.
Click, click, went the key in the door, and the door opened and the little dwarf came in stamping and scolding.
He came into the room where the princess was, and said,
“Silver and gold have I none;
How many skeins have you spun?”
The princess went to her spinning wheel, and showed the dwarf that she had spun two skeins of thread.
The little dwarf stamped his foot and cried,