The poor little miller’s daughter sat down in front of the spinning wheel and cried and cried. She didn’t know how to spin straw into gold any more than you or I do, and she didn’t want to die a bit.
“Well, well, what’s all this crying for?” said a tiny voice at her ear.
So many queer things had happened that night that it did not seem at all strange to have a man appear out of nowhere. He was not exactly a man, though. He was just a tiny little Dwarf. And the miller’s daughter told him all her troubles.
“Why, that’s nothing,” the little man said; “I can spin that straw into gold myself. But I won’t do it for nothing. What will you give me for doing it?”
The girl had a necklace she was very proud of. She hated to part with it, but she gave it to the little man. He sat promptly down at the spinning wheel, and in a jiffy the golden straws were flying through his hands, and turning into threads of pure gold. Long before daybreak the room was full of gold instead of straw.
Early in the morning the King came. He could hardly wait to learn whether the girl had done her difficult task. When he saw the room heaped with gold he fairly danced with joy, although that was not very dignified for a King. Having one room full of gold only made him want another. So he took the miller’s daughter to a larger room, where there was even more straw. Once more he told her that if she wanted to live she must turn the straw to gold.
The little Dwarf helped her out again. This time she had to pay him with her ring.
In the morning, when the King saw all the gold, he was still not satisfied. He was getting rich so easily that he hated to stop. So he had the miller’s daughter led to the largest room in the palace, and had it filled with straw for her to spin into gold.
This time, however, he told the girl that if she succeeded for the third time in her task she should become his wife. “She’s only the poor miller’s daughter,” he said to himself, “but look how rich she is.”
The girl was not surprised to see the Dwarf come in. He was quite disagreeable, though, when she said she had nothing to give him this time for spinning the gold.