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272 back, and she thought he, too, must have died. So she set out to find the Talking-Bird, Singing-Tree, and Water of Life. She arrived at last at that same oak-tree, saw the old man sitting on it, greeted him, and shaved his head and brows, as she brought scissors and a mirror with her.

"Look," she said, "what a change it makes in you!"

He looked into the mirror: "Yes," he said; "I am quite a fine man now. I've sat here thirty years: never a soul cut my hair, you guessed my need."

Then she asked him: "Grandfather, how can I get the Talking-Bird, the Singing-Tree, and the Water of Life?"

He answered: "How can you get them? Cleverer folk than you have been after them, and they have all been lost." But she persisted: "Please tell me!"

So he gave her another rolling-pin, and told her to follow it: she would hear cries of "Catch her: scotch her," but she must not look round, for fear of being turned into stone. "At the top you will see a well and the Talking-Bird. As you come back, you will see lofty stones standing upright; sprinkle them all with the Water of Life."

So on she went: the pin rolled on, far or near, long or short, it reached a steep mountain; and the girl climbed up and heard cries: "Where are you going? We shall kill you! We shall eat you up!"

But still she went on and on, reached the summit, and there she found a well and the Talking-Bird. She took it and asked it: "Tell me how to get the Singing-Tree and the Water of Life."

The Bird replied: "Go straight by this path."

She did, and came upon the Singing-Tree, and in it all sorts of birds were singing. She broke off a sprig, pulled up a water-lily, and put some of the Water of Life into the cup of the flower, and turned back homewards.