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of straw and said, “You must spin this too into gold by morning. If you succeed, I shall

make you my queen.” When the girl was alone the little man came again for the third
time and said, “What will you give me if I spin the straw for you this time also?” “I have

nothing left that I could give,” answered the girl. “Then promise me that if you should
become the queen you would give your first child to me.”

“Will that ever happen?” thought the miller’s daughter and not knowing how else to

help herself, she promised the little man what he wanted. The little man once more

spun all the straw into gold.

When the king came in the next morning and got what he had wished for, he took her
in marriage. The pretty miller’s daughter became a queen.

A year later, the king and the queen had a lovely baby. The queen forgot all about the

promise she had made to the little man. Suddenly one day, the little man appeared and
asked the queen to give him her baby. She offered him all the riches of the kingdom

instead of her child. But the little man didn’t want to accept anything else. Then the
queen cried and cried so much that the little man took pity on her.

The little man said, “You can keep your child, but on one condition.
What condition did the
In three days, you must find out my name. If you fail to do so, I little man put forth to let
shall come and take away your child.” the queen keep her child?

The queen thought of all the names that she had heard. She sent
a messenger to every nook and corner of the country for any other names that there
might be.

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