Stranica 115 [115]
THE THREE SPINSTERS. 83
The girl was inwardly terrified, for she could not have
spun the flax, even if she were to live to be a hundred years
old, and were to sit spinning every day of her life from morn¬
ing to evening. And when she found herself alone she began
to weep, and sat so for three days without putting her hand to
it. On the third day the Queen came, and when she saw that
nothing had been done of the spinning she was much sur¬
prised ; but the girl excused herself by saying that she had not
been able to begin because of the distress she was in at leav¬
ing her home and her mother. The excuse contented the
Queen, who said, however, as she went away,
‘To-morrow you must begin to work.”
When the girl found herself alone again she could not tell
how to help herself or what to do, and in her perplexity she
went and gazed out of the window. ‘There she saw three
women passing by, and the first of them had a broad flat foot,
the second had a big under-lip that hung down over her chin,
and the third had a remarkably broad thumb. They all of
them stopped in front of the window, and called out to know
what it was that the girl wanted. She told them all her need,
and they promised her their help, and said,
“Then will you invite us to your wedding, and not be
ashamed of us, and call us your cousins, and let us sit at your
table ; 1f you ‘will promise this, we will finish off your flax¬
spinning in a very short time.”
“With all my heart,” answered the girl; " only come in
now, and begin at once.”
Then these same women came in, and she cleared a space
in the first room for them to sit and carry on their spinning,
The first one drew out the thread and moved the treddle that
turned the wheel, the second moistened the thread, the third
twisted it, and rapped with her finger on the table, and as
often as she rapped a heap of yarn fell to the ground, and it
was most beautifully spun. But the girl hid the three spinsters
out of the Queen’s sight, and only showed her, as often as she
came, the heaps of well-spun yarn ; and there was no end to
the praises she received. When the first room was empty they
went on to the second, and then to the third, so that at last
all was finished. ‘Then the three women took their leave, say¬
ing to the girl,