“Pauf!” exclaimed the little creature, “that is no great task.”
Then she tapped a tiny wand twice on the flower stem, and a spinning-wheel stood before her—such a tiny little spinning wheel! She lifted the wand again, and the flax stem bent down, so that she gathered its flower, and in a minute the spinning-wheel was twirling merrily. A touch of the wand, and the loom was before her; then the thread was spun into white cloth as fine as cobweb. Boots watched, fascinated. The little creature next fashioned the cloth into a shirt—such a tiny shirt—and never was one so fine seen in all the world before.
“You shall come with me to the palace—you shall be my bride!” exclaimed Boots.
The little creature smiled at him, and said: “I will go with you to the palace, and I will be your bride, but I must go in my own way.”
“You shall go in any way that you will!” said Boots.
So Doll-in-the-Grass touched the stem of the flower again, and her own silver carriage came to her, drawn by two tiny white mice. And Boots rode beside her, careful that his great horse should not crush the little carriage.
The little mice traveled very fast, and it was not long before they came to a stream. Now, the great horse could swim the stream without difficulty; but when the mice plunged into it little Doll-in-the-Grass and the silver carriage and all went under the water. Then Boots was disconsolate, but as he stood, mourning, a beautiful maiden came up out of the water, a maiden fairer than any in all the kingdom, and neither smaller nor larger than any of them. And she smiled at Boots and said: “You see how love can do great things.”
And Boots caught her up on his horse before him and exclaimed: “Ah, love can indeed do great things.”
And so they rode home together. And of all the wives whom his brothers won, none was so beautiful as Doll-in-the-Grass. And of all the shirts that the wives spun, none was so fine or so soft as the one which Doll-in-the-Grass gave to her father-in-law; and it had become a big shirt—large enough for a man to wear—and was as soft as silk and as fine as any cobweb could possibly be.
And the King loved her more than any of his other daughters-in-law, and Boots more than any of his other sons; so he said they should live with him in his palace, and by-and-by succeed him on the throne.