. The pink fairy book. the chimney. When he hadgot into the house, however, the worst yet remained to do,for the coverlet was on the bed in which the witch layand slept. He slipped into the room without either sheor her daughter wakening ; but as soon as he touched thecoverlet to take it it sounded so that it could be heardover eight kingdoms. The witch awoke, sprang out ofbed, and caught hold of Esben. He struggled with her,but could not free himself, and the witch called to herdaughter, Come and help me ; we shall put him into the 270 ESBEN AND THE WITCH little dark room to be fattened. Ho,
. The pink fairy book. the chimney. When he hadgot into the house, however, the worst yet remained to do,for the coverlet was on the bed in which the witch layand slept. He slipped into the room without either sheor her daughter wakening ; but as soon as he touched thecoverlet to take it it sounded so that it could be heardover eight kingdoms. The witch awoke, sprang out ofbed, and caught hold of Esben. He struggled with her,but could not free himself, and the witch called to herdaughter, Come and help me ; we shall put him into the 270 ESBEN AND THE WITCH little dark room to be fattened. Ho, ho! now I havehim! Esben was now put into a little dark hole, where hesaw neither sun nor moon, and there he was fed on sweetmilk and nut-kernels. The daughter had enough to docracking nuts for him, and at the end of fourteen daysshe had only one tooth left in her mouth; she had brokenall the rest with the nuts. In this time, however, shehad taken a liking to Esben, and would willingly have sethim free, but could When some time had passed the witch told herdaughter to go and cut a finger off Esben, so that she couldsee whether he was nearly fat enough yet. The daughterwent and told Esben, and asked him what she should told her to take an iron nail and wrap a piece ofskin round it: she could then give her mother this to biteat. The daughter did so, but when the witch bit it shecried, Uh! no, no ! This is nothing but skin and bone;he must be fattened much longer yet. So Esben was fed for a while lons-er on sweet milk ESBEN AND THE WITCH 271 and nut-kernels, until one day the witch thought thatnow he must surely be fat enough, and told her daughteragain to go and cut a finger off him. By this timeEsben was tired of staying in the dark hole, so he told herto go and cut a teat off a cow, and give it to the witch tobite at. This the daughter did, and the witch cried, Ah !now he is fat — so fat that one can scarcely feel the bonein him. Now he shall be killed. Now thi
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjecttales, bookyear1897
