" The King suspected no evil, and did not
come back again till next morning; and as he talked with his wife and
she answered him, with every word a toad leaped out, whereas formerly
a piece of gold had fallen out. Then he asked what that could be, but
the old woman said that she had got that from the violent perspiration,
and would soon lose it again. During the night, however, the scullion
saw a duck come swimming up the gutter, and it said,
"King, what art thou doing now?
Sleepest thou, or wakest thou?"
And as he returned no answer, it said,
"And my guests, What may they do?"
The scullion said,
"They are sleeping soundly, too."
Then it asked again,
"What does little baby mine?"
He answered,
"Sleepeth in her cradle fine."
Then she went upstairs in the form of the Queen, nursed the baby, shook
up its little bed, covered it over, and then swam away again down the
gutter in the shape of a duck. She came thus for two nights; on the third,
she said to the scullion, "Go and tell the King to take his sword and
swing it three times over me on the threshold.
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