“Even though she is only a miller’s daughter,” he thought to himself, “I could not find a richer wife anywhere in the whole world.”
When the girl was alone the little man came for the third time, and said, “What will you give me if I spin the straw for you this once more?”
“I have nothing more that I can give,” answered the girl.
“Then promise me when you are queen to give me your first child.”
“Who knows what may happen before that?” thought the miller’s daughter; and, [[5]]besides, she knew no way to help herself out of this difficulty. So she promised the little man what he asked, and for that he soon spun the straw into gold once more.
When the King came in the morning and found everything as he had wished, he took her in marriage, and the miller’s beautiful daughter became a queen.
A year later she had a beautiful child, and she never gave a thought to the little man; but all of a sudden one day he walked into her room and said, “Now give me what you promised.”
The Queen was terrified, and offered the little man all the treasures of the kingdom if he would only leave her her child.
But the little man said, “No, something living is dearer to me than all the treasures in the world.”
Then the Queen began to mourn and weep so bitterly that the little man was sorry for her, and said, “I will give you three days, and if in that time you can guess my name, you shall keep your child.” [[6]]