on till she came to a tree weighed down with apples, and it called out to her,
"Oh, shake me, shake me, we apples are all of us ripe!"
Then she shook the tree until the apples fell like rain, and she shook until there were no more to fall; and when she had gathered them together in a heap, she went on farther. At last she came to a little house, and an old woman was peeping out of it, but she had such great teeth that the girl was terrified and about to run away, only the old woman called her back.
"What are you afraid of, my dear child? Come and live with me, and if you do the house-work well and orderly, things shall go well with you. You must take great pains to make my bed well, and shake it up thoroughly, so that the feathers fly about, and then in the world it snows, for I am Mother Hulda,"[1]
As the old woman spoke so kindly, the girl took courage, consented, and went to her work. She did everything to the old woman's satisfaction, and shook the bed with such a will that the feathers flew about like snow-flakes: and so she led a good life, had never a cross word, but boiled and roast meat every day. When she had lived a long time with Mother Hulda, she began to feel sad, not knowing herself what ailed her; at last she began to think she must be home-sick; and although she was a thousand times better off than at home where she was, yet she had a great longing to go home. At last she said to her mistress,
"I am home-sick, and although I am very well off here, I cannot stay any longer; I must go back to my own home."
Mother Hulda answered,
"It pleases me well that you should wish to go home, and, as you have served me faithfully, I will undertake to send you there!"
She took her by the hand and led her to a large door standing open, and as she was passing through it there fell upon her a heavy shower of gold, and the gold hung all about her, so that she was covered with it.
"All this is yours, because you have been so industrious," said Mother Hulda; and, besides that, she returned to her her
- ↑ In Hesse, when it snows, they say, "Mother Hulda is making her bed."
