The woman’s own daughter decided she wanted some gold, too. So she went out and began spinning. She picked her finger with the spindle, threw it in the well and jumped in after it.
She came to the apple tree and refused to shake it; she came to the oven and refused to take the bread out; she met Mother Frost and lived with her a little while, but would not make her bed.
When she decided to go home, Mother Frost led her to the same gate. When she passed through the bucket of tar fell and covered her all over with tar.
When she reached her own yard, the old rooster on the fence said: “Cock-a-doodle-doo, our tar girl has come home.”
THE LOOKING-GLASS WITCH
We should make every effort to overcome in childhood any habit, which if allowed to grow, will exert a bad influence on our later life.
There was once a little girl, named Gretchen, who was a very nice little girl most of the time. When she smiled everybody thought she was pretty. But she often lost her temper, and when she was angry her face was so ugly that it scared people to look at her.
She was no longer pretty little Gretchen, but her face was all covered with wrinkles and frowns, and her eyes turned green. All the children were afraid of her, and even the animals ran away when she came near. “You can never tell when Gretchen is going to be angry,” they would say. Her mother grieved over her, but it did no good. She wondered what she could do to cure this bad habit of her little daughter.
One day as her mother was slowly walking along wondering how to help her little daughter she heard a soft voice say: “I will help you.”