Page:Europa's Fairy Book.djvu/173

 Rh do what the Master-Maid had told him, and made a ladder out of her bones and climbed up to the top of the tree and took the birds' nest with the six eggs in it, and then he put the bones together, but forgot to put one little bone in its proper place.

So when he had sprinkled the water over the bones the Master-Maid stood up before him just as before, but the little finger of her left hand was not there. She cried and said:

"Ah, why did you not do what I told you—put all my bones together in their place? You forgot my little finger; I shall never have one all the days of my life."

When the giant came home, he asked the Prince:

"Where is the birds' nest?"

And the Prince brought it to him with the eggs all safe within it. And then the giant said:

"Ah, you have spoken to my Master-Maid."

"Whom do you mean by your Master-Maid?" said the Prince. "There are your eggs, what more do you want?"

But the giant said: "Well, as the Master-Maid has helped you so far she can help you always. You shall marry her today and sleep in my own four-poster."

The Prince was well content with that arrangement and went and sought the Master-Maid and told her what the giant had said.

The Master-Maid wept and said: "You know not what he means. His four-poster rolls up and