“I am the Guardian Angel of every Christian child; thou art poor and needy; bring me thy child, and I will take her with me.  I will be her mother, and henceforth she shall be under my care.”  The woodcutter consented, and calling his child gave her to the Angel, who carried her to the land of Happiness.  There everything went happily; she ate sweet bread and drank pure milk; her clothes were gold, and her playfellows were beautiful children.  When she became fourteen years old, the Guardian Angel called her to her side and said, “My dear child, I have a long journey for thee.  Take these keys of the thirteen doors of the land of Happiness; twelve of them thou mayest open, and behold the glories therein; but the thirteenth, to which this little key belongs, thou art forbidden to open.  Beware! if thou dost disobey, harm will befall thee.”

The maiden promised to be obedient, and, when the Guardian Angel was gone, began her visits to the mansions of Happiness.  Every day one door was unclosed, until she had seen all the twelve.  In each mansion there sat an angel, surrounded by a bright light.  The maiden rejoiced at the glory, and the child who accompanied her rejoiced with her.  Now the forbidden door alone remained.  A great desire possessed the maiden to know what was hidden there; and she said to the child, “I will not quite open it, nor will I go in, but I will only unlock the door so that we may peep through the chink.”  “No, no,” said the child; “that will be a sin.  The Guardian Angel has forbidden it, and misfortune would soon fall upon us.”

At this the maiden was silent, but the desire still remained in her heart, and tormented her continually, so that she had no peace.  One day, however, all the children were away, and she thought, “Now I am alone and can peep in, no one will know what I do;” so she found the keys, and, taking them in her hand, placed the right one in the lock and turned it round.  Then the door sprang open, and she saw three angels sitting on a throne, surrounded by a great light.  The maiden remained a little while standing in astonishment; and then, putting her finger in the light, she drew it back and it was turned into gold.  Then great alarm seized her, and, shutting the door hastily, she ran away.  But her fear only increased more and more, and her heart beat so violently that she thought it would burst; the gold also on her finger would not come off, although she washed it and rubbed it with all her strength.

Not long afterward the Guardian Angel came, back from her journey, and calling the maiden to her, demanded the keys of the mansion.  As she delivered them up, the Angel looked in her face and asked, “Hast thou opened the thirteenth door?”—­“No,” answered the maiden.

Then the Angel laid her hand upon the maiden’s heart, and felt how violently it was beating; and she knew that her command had been disregarded, and that the child had opened the door.  Then she asked again, “Hast thou opened the thirteenth door?”—­“No,” said the maiden, for the second time.