Bushy Bride

So the heads all began to talk to each other, and to ask what they should do for this girl who was so full of kindliness.

`She shall be the prettiest girl that ever was, and fair and bright as the day,' said the first head.

`Gold shall drop from her hair whenever she brushes it,' said the second.

`Gold shall drop from her mouth whenever she speaks,' said the third head.

So when the man's daughter went home, looking as beautiful and bright as day, the step-mother and her daughter grew much more ill-tempered, and it was worse still when she began to talk, and they saw that golden coins dropped from her mouth. The step-mother fell into such a towering passion that she drove the man's daughter into the pig-stye--she might stay there with her fine show of gold, the step-mother said, but she should not be permitted to set foot in the house.

It was not long before the mother wanted her own daughter to go to the stream to fetch some water.

When she got there with her pails, the first head rose up out of the water close to the bank. `Wash me, girl!' it said.

`Wash yourself!' answered the woman's daughter.

Then the second head appeared.

`Brush me, girl!' said the head.

`Brush yourself!' said the woman's daughter.

So down it went to the bottom, and the third head came up.

`Kiss me, girl!' said the head.

`As if I would kiss your ugly mouth!' said the girl.

So again the heads talked together about what they should do for this girl who was so ill-tempered and full of her own importance, and they agreed that she should have a nose that was four ells long, and a jaw that was three ells, and a fir bush in the middle of her forehead, and every time she spoke ashes should fall from her mouth.

When she came back to the cottage door with her pails, she called to her mother who was inside, `Open the door!'

`Open the door yourself, my own dear child!' said the mother.

`I can't get near, because of my nose,' said the daughter.

When the mother came and saw her you may imagine what a state of mind she was in, and how she screamed and lamented, but neither the nose nor the jaw grew any the less for that.