Then she laughed.  “Not a bite, not a sup, lest they should choke you:  though that would be small matter to me,” she replied, with a toss of her head.

“Then ill luck go with thee,” remarked the old man as he rose and went into the cave.

So she went on her way, and after a time came to the thick thorny hedge, and seeing what she thought was a gap in it, she tried to pass through; but no sooner had she got well into the middle of the hedge than the thorns closed in around her so that she was all scratched and torn before she won her way.  Thus, streaming with blood, she went on to the well, and seeing water, sate on the brink intending to cleanse herself.  But just as she dipped her hands, up came a golden head singing as it came: 

  “Wash me, and comb me, lay me on the bank to dry
   Softly and prettily to watch the passers-by.”

“A likely story,” says she.  “I’m going to wash myself.”  And with that she gave the head such a bang with her bottle that it bobbed below the water.  But it came up again, and so did a second head, singing as it came: 

  “Wash me, and comb me, lay me on the bank to dry
   Softly and prettily to watch the passers-by.”

“Not I,” scoffs she.  “I’m going to wash my hands and face and have my dinner.”  So she fetches the second head a cruel bang with the bottle, and both heads ducked down in the water.

But when they came up again all draggled and dripping, the third head came also, singing as it came: 

  “Wash me, and comb me, lay me on the bank to dry
   Softly and prettily to watch the passers-by.”

By this time the ugly princess had cleansed herself, and, seated on the primrose bank, had her mouth full of sugar and almonds.

“Not I,” says she as well as she could.  “I’m not a washerwoman nor a barber.  So take that for your washing and combing.”

And with that, having finished the Malaga sack, she flung the empty bottle at the three heads.

But this time they didn’t duck.  They looked at each other and said, “How shall we weird this rude girl for her bad manners?” Then the first head said: 

“I weird that to her ugliness shall be added blotches on her face.”

And the second head said: 

“I weird that she shall ever be hoarse as a crow and speak as if she had her mouth full.”

Then the third head said: 

“And I weird that she shall be glad to marry a cobbler.”

Then the three heads sank into the well and were no more seen, and the ugly princess went on her way.  But, lo and behold! when she came to a town, the children ran from her ugly blotched face screaming with fright, and when she tried to tell them she was the King of Colchester’s daughter, her voice squeaked like a corn-crake’s, was hoarse as a crow’s, and folk could not understand a word she said, because she spoke as if her mouth was full!

Now in the town there happened to be a cobbler who not long before had mended the shoes of a poor old hermit; and the latter, having no money, had paid for the job by the gift of a wonderful ointment which would cure blotches on the face, and a bottle of medicine that would banish any hoarseness.