Page:Polish Fairy Tales - M. A. Biggs.djvu/147

 Rh and began eating the cakes with great relish, looking from the window all the time.

It soon began to get dark, a strong wind began to blow, and a voice was heard singing outside:

"Wanderer! outcast, forsaken! Whom the night has overtaken; If no crime your conscience stain, Here this night you may remain."

When the voice ceased she answered:

"I am outcast and forsaken; Yet unstained by crime am I: Be you rich, or be you poor, For this night here let me lie."

Then the door opened, and the bear walked in.

The girl stood up, gave him a winning smile, and waited for him to bow first.

The bear looked at her narrowly, made a bow, and said:

"Welcome, maiden ... but I have not much time to stay here. I must go back to the forest; but between now and to-morrow evening you must make me a shirt, out of this flax; so you must set at once about spinning, weaving, bleaching, washing, and then about sewing it. Good-bye!"

So saying the bear turned, and went out.

"That's not what I came here for," said the girl, so soon as his back was turned, "to do your spinning, weaving, and sewing! You may do without a shirt for me!"