FIFTH STORY: Little Robber-GirlThe coach drove on through a thick forest, where it
lighted up the way like a torch, and dazzled the eyes of some
robbers, who could not bear to let it pass them
unmolested.
"It is gold! it is gold!" cried they, rushing forward, and
seizing the horses. Then they struck the little jockeys, the
coachman, and the footman dead, and pulled little Gerda out of the
carriage.
"She is fat and pretty, and she has been fed with the
kernels of nuts," said the old robber-woman, who had a long beard
and eyebrows that hung over her eyes. "She is as good as a little
lamb; how nice she will taste!" and as she said this, she drew
forth a shining knife, that glittered horribly. "Oh!" screamed the
old woman the same moment; for her own daughter, who held her back,
