After she finished doing that, she began opening up the rooms of the Palace and admiring all the beautiful things in them. And after looking again and again at the key of the forbidden room, she could no longer resist the temptation to peep into it, and she gently opened the door.
But what she saw made her let out a scream, for there was her sister, lying among a lot of poor dead ladies! And the fright made her fall on her hands and knees in the room, and when she rose up one of her hands was all over blood. She ran for warm water and scrubbed it again and again, without being able to get it cleaned---and terror came upon her.
Then came the little lean cat, saying as before: "I will lick your hand as clean as ever for a plate of milk."
But all the answer it got from her was: "Ugly little beast, be going with you! If the good warm water cannot cleanse my hand, is it likely that your tongue can? Shoo!"
"Well then, you will see what will happen when himself comes home!" said the cat, and it sat down and began licking itself.
Then came the sound of the horse's gallop, and he came in and called for his dinner. And when it was set before him he said to the second daughter:
"Well, were you a good woman to-day?"
"That I was," said she, shivering all the same. |
