Page:Grimm's Fairy Tales.djvu/148

 130 Worse still, she neglected to make the old woman's bed properly, and forgot to shake it so that the feathers might fly about. So Mother Holle very soon got tired of her, and told her she might go. The lazy girl was delighted at this, and thought to herself, "the gold will soon be mine." Mother Holle led her, as she had her sister, to the broad gateway; but as she was passing through, instead of the shower of gold, a great bucketful of pitch came pouring over her.

"That is in return for your services," said the old woman, and she shut the gate.

So the lazy girl had to go home covered with pitch, and the cock on the well called out as he saw her—

But, try what she would, she could not get the pitch off, and it stuck to her as long as she lived.