“Well,” said his wife, “she takes nothing away with her but her unwashed hands, and after she gets home she gives the water in which she washes her hands to the children to drink.”
“Then you must put a stop to that,” he ordered.
So the next time, when the woman had finished kneading, the rich man’s wife said to her, “Wash your hands and then go.”
The poor woman obeyed with a sad heart, and quailed to think of returning home without being able to give her children even the milk soup wash to which they had become accustomed. As soon as she reached her house the children gathered about her, clamoring that she should make haste and give them their usual treat; but she said, “I washed my hands before I came away this time.”
All the children began to weep and to say, “How could you so forget us as not to bring us that beautiful broth?”
In the midst of the lamentations the father entered the house, and asked, “What ails the children that they cry so noisily?”
She told him all that had happened, and he was much grieved. “Perhaps I can find a little food on the mountain-side,” said he. “I will take a bag and try to get some herbs and edible roots.”
So away he went, and he wandered a long distance. At last he found himself on the top of a high crag and saw, not far away, a great castle. “I wonder to whom that castle belongs,” said he.
He went nearer and climbed into a tree to get a better view of it. While he was looking, behold, a number of dragons came out. He counted them, and there were forty-nine. They left the door open and went away out of sight. So he climbed down from the tree and went to the castle, where he walked about from room to room and saw that it contained a vast amount of treasure. Into his bag he put as much gold as he could carry and hurried away with it, fearful that the dragons would catch him.
When they came back they perceived that some of their money was gone, and henceforth they determined that one of them should stay behind in the castle when the others went out.