“No!” thundered the manikin. “Give me the child.”
“Is it,” the Queen asked softly, “by any chance Rumpelstiltskin?”
“Some witch has told you that! Some witch had told you that!” cried the little man; and he dashed his left foot in a rage so deep into the floor that he was forced to lay hold of it with both hands to pull it out. Then he made the best of his way off, while everybody laughed at him for having had all his trouble for nothing.
“some witch has told you that!”
RAPUNZEL,
OR THE FAIR MAID WITH GOLDEN HAIR
BY THE BROTHERS GRIMM
There were once a man and a woman who wished very much to have a little child. Now, these people had a small window in their cottage which looked out into a beautiful garden full of the most lovely flowers and vegetables. There was a high wall round it, but even had there not been no one would have ventured to enter the garden, because it belonged to a sorceress, whose power was so great that every one feared her.
One day the woman stood at the window looking into the garden, and she saw a bed which was planted full of most beautiful lettuces. As she looked at them she began to wish she had some to eat, but she could not ask for them.