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Craik, Dinah Maria Mulock, 1826-1887

"The Fairy Book The Best Popular Stories Selected and Rendered Anew"

"
She answered: "It seems so to me too; I think I hear my father's mill
turning."
"Oh, then, you are a miller's daughter; go straight back and send the
king's daughter here!"
Then she returned and told the old king that the Iron Stove would not
have her; he wanted the princess only. The old king was greatly
frightened, and the princess wept. But they had still a swineherd's
daughter, who was still more beautiful than the miller's girl; so they
gave her a piece of gold, in order that she might be persuaded to go,
instead of the king's daughter, to the Iron Stove. She was taken to
the wood as before, and had also to scrape for four-and-twenty hours;
but she could make no impression.
Now, when dawn broke, a voice called out of the Stove, "It seems to me
it is day out there."
Then she answered, "It seems so to me too; I think I hear my father's
little horn sounding."
"So you are the swineherd's daughter; go away directly, and bid the
king's daughter come, and tell her it shall happen to her as I
forewarned her; if she does not come, everything in the kingdom shall
fall to pieces and tumble down, and no stone remain upon another."
When the king's daughter heard this, she began to cry; but there was
nothing else to be done--she must keep her promise. She took leave of
her father, put a knife in her pocket, and went out to the Iron Stove
in the wood.


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