‘Agreed!’ said the second fairy; and that very night, while everyone else was gone quietly to bed they went, one into the palace and fetched some of the queen’s clothes, and, bringing them to the tripe-seller’s room, placed them by the side of her bed; and the other went to the tripe-seller’s room and fetched her clothes, and took them and put them by the side of the queen’s bed. They also woke them very early, and when each got up she put on the things that were by the side of the bed, thinking they were the things she had left there the night before. Thus the queen was dressed like a tripe-seller, and the tripe-seller like a queen.
Then one fairy took the queen, dressed like a tripe-seller, and put her down in the tripe-seller’s shop, and the other fairy took the tripe-seller, dressed like a queen, and placed her in the palace, and both of them did their work so swiftly that neither the queen nor the tripe-seller perceived the flight at all.
The queen was very much astonished at finding herself in a tripe-shop, and began staring about, wondering how she got there.
‘Here! Don’t stand gaping about like that!’ cried the tripe-man,[4] who was a very hot-tempered fellow; ‘Why, you haven’t boiled the coffee!’
‘Boiled the coffee!’ repeated the queen, hardly apprehending what he meant.
‘Yes; you haven’t boiled the coffee!’ said the tripe-man. ‘Don’t repeat my words, but do your work!’ and he took her by the shoulders, put the coffee-pot in her hand, and stood over her looking so fierce that she was frightened into doing what she had never done or seen done in all her life before.
Presently the coffee began to boil over.
‘There! Don’t waste all the coffee like that!’ cried the tripe-man, and he got up and gave her a slap, which made the tears come in her eyes.
‘Don’t blubber!’ said the tripe-man; ‘but bring the coffee here and pour it out.’
The queen did as she was told; but when she began to drink it, though she had made it herself, it was so nasty she didn’t know how to drink it. It was very different stuff from what she got at the palace; but the tripe-man had his eye on her, and she didn’t dare not to drink it.