On the third day after his return the old woman came down upon him and said:
"Go and fetch my darling; she is no doubt all dressed in gold by this time, or married to a king; so I shall be a queen's mother."
The old man, obedient as ever, harnessed the waggon, and drove off.
When evening came the old woman gazed from the window; when the dog began to bark:
"Bow! wow! wow! the old man's come!
Your daughter's bones he's bringing home!"
"You lie!" exclaimed the old woman; "bark like this:
'Bow! wow! wow! the old man's here!
Driving home your daughter dear,
Decked in gold and diamonds' sheen,
Gifts to please a royal queen.'"
So saying she ran out of the house to meet the old man, coming back in the waggon; but she stood as if thunderstruck, sobbed, and wept, and was hardly able to articulate:
"Where is my sweetest daughter?"
The old man scratched his head, and replied:
"She has met with a great misfortune; this is all I have found of her—a few bare bones, and blood-stained garments; in the wood, in the old hut ... she has been devoured by wolves."
The old woman, wild with grief and despair, gathered up
