“kill this youth. boil him in the large cauldron,” said the giant
Immediately the maiden began to make her preparations very neatly and quickly. First, with a little knife she made a small gash in the Prince’s little finger and dropped three drops of his blood on the wooden stool, near the cauldron. Then she gathered up a lot of rubbish, such as old shoes and rags, and put them in the cauldron with water and pepper and salt. Last of all, she packed a small chest with gold, and gave it to the Prince to carry; filled a water-flask; took a golden cock and hen, and put a lump of salt and a golden apple in her pocket. Then the maid and the Prince ran to the sea-shore as fast as they could, climbed on board a little ship that had come from no-one-knows-where, and sailed away.
After a while the Giant roused a little, and said sleepily: “Will it soon boil?”
The first drop of blood answered quietly: “It is just beginning.” And the Giant went to sleep again.
At the end of a few hours more he roused again and asked: “Will it soon be ready?”
And the second drop said: “Half done,” in the maiden’s mournful voice, for she had seen so many dark deeds done that, until the Prince came, she was always sad.
Again the Giant went to sleep, for several hours; but then he became quite awake, and asked: “Is it not done yet?”
The third drop said: “Quite ready.” And the Giant sat up, and looked around. The maiden was nowhere to be seen, but the Giant went over to the pot and tasted the soup.
At once he knew what had happened, and in a furious rage rushed to the sea, but he could not get over it. So he called up his water-sucker, who lay down and drank two or three draughts; and the water fell so low that the horizon dropped, and the Giant could see the maiden and the Prince a long way off.