long-nosed Princess, and you alone can save me.  I will say that I want to see what my bride can do, and bid her wash the shirt which has the three drops of tallow on it.  This she will consent to do, for she does not know that it is you who let them fall on it; but no one can wash them out but one born of Christian folk:  it cannot be done by one of a pack of trolls; and then I will say that no one shall ever be my bride but the woman who can do this, and I know that you can.”  There was great joy and gladness between them all that night, but the next day, when the wedding was to take place, the Prince said, “I must see what my bride can do.”  “That you may do,” said the stepmother.

“I have a fine shirt which I want to wear as my wedding shirt, but three drops of tallow have got upon it which I want to have washed off, and I have vowed to marry no one but the woman who is able to do it.  If she cannot do that, she is not worth having.”

Well, that was a very small matter, they thought, and agreed to do it.  The Princess with the long nose began to wash as well as she could, but, the more she washed and rubbed, the larger the spots grew.  “Ah! you can’t wash at all,” said the old troll-hag, who was her mother.  “Give it to me.”  But she too had not had the shirt very long in her hands before it looked worse still, and, the more she washed it and rubbed it, the larger and blacker grew the spots.

So the other trolls had to come and wash, but, the more they did, the blacker and uglier grew the shirt, until at length it was as black as if it had been up the chimney.  “Oh,” cried the Prince, “not one of you is good for anything at all!  There is a beggar-girl sitting outside the window, and I’ll be bound that she can wash better than any of you!  Come in, you girl there!” he cried.  So she came in.  “Can you wash this shirt clean?” he cried.  “Oh!  I don’t know,” she said; “but I will try.”  And no sooner had she taken the shirt and dipped it in the water than it was white as driven snow, and even whiter than that.  “I will marry you,” said the Prince.

Then the old troll-hag flew into such a rage that she burst, and the Princess with the long nose and all the little trolls must have burst too, for they have never been heard of since.  The Prince and his bride set free all the Christian folk who were imprisoned there, and took away with them all the gold and silver that they could carry, and moved far away from the castle which lay east of the sun and west of the moon.[1]

[1] Asbjornsen and Moe.

THE YELLOW DWARF

Once upon a time there lived a queen who had been the mother of a great many children, and of them all only one daughter was left.  But then she was worth at least a thousand.

Her mother, who, since the death of the King, her father, had nothing in the world she cared for so much as this little Princess, was so terribly afraid of losing her that she quite spoiled her, and never tried to correct any of her faults.  The consequence was that this little person, who was as pretty as possible, and was one day to wear a crown, grew up so proud and so much in love with her own beauty that she despised everyone else in the world.