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250 She was not slow to give heed to the bird and to hide under the bed. She crept as far back close to the wall as she could, for she was so afraid she would have crept into the wall itself, had she been able.

So in came her lover with another girl; and she begged so prettily and so hard he would only spare her life, and then she would never say a word against him; but it was all no good. He tore off all her clothes and jewels, down to a ring which she had on her finger. That he pulled and tore at; but when he couldn't get it off he hacked off her finger, and it rolled away under the bed to the girl who lay there, and she took it up and kept it. Her sweetheart told a little boy who was with him to creep under the bed and bring out the finger. Yes; he bent down and crept under, and saw the girl lying there; but she squeezed his hand hard, and then he saw what she meant.

"It lies so far under, I can't reach it," he cried. "Let it bide there till to-morrow, and then I'll fetch it out."

Early next morning the robber went out, and the boy was left behind to mind the house, and he then went to meet the girl to whom his master was betrothed, and who had come, as you know, by mistake the day before. But before he went, the robber told him to be sure not to let her go into the two farthermost bedrooms.

So when he was well off in the wood, the boy went and said she might come out now.

"You were lucky, that you were," he said, "in coming so soon, else he would have killed you like all the others."