The Water-Lily. The Gold-SpinnersOnce upon a time, in a large forest, there lived an old woman
and three maidens. They were all three beautiful, but the
youngest was the fairest. Their hut was quite hidden by
trees, and none saw their beauty but the sun by day, and the moon
by night, and the eyes of the stars. The old woman kept the
girls hard at work, from morning till night, spinning gold flax
into yarn, and when one distaff was empty another was given them,
so they had no rest. The thread had to be fine and even, and
when done was locked up in a secret chamber by the old woman, who
twice or thrice every summer went a journey. Before she went
she gave out work for each day of her absence, and always returned
in the night, so that the girls never saw what she brought back
