The girl was looking outside for strawberries, but as she found none, she went sulkily home. And directly she opened her mouth to tell her mother what had happened to her in the wood a toad sprang out of her mouth at each word, so that every one who came near her was quite disgusted.

The stepmother became more and more set against the man's daughter, whose beauty increased day by day, and her only thought was how to do her some injury. So at last she took a kettle, set it on the fire, and scalded some yarn in it. When it was ready she hung it over the poor girl's shoulder, and gave her an axe, and she was to go to the frozen river and break a hole in the ice, and there to rinse the yarn. She obeyed, and went and hewed a hole in the ice, and as she was about it there came by a splendid coach, in which the King sat. The coach stood still, and the King said, "My child, who art thou, and what art thou doing there?"

姑娘在屋外找草莓，可一个也找不到，只好气鼓鼓地回家去了。 她开口给母亲讲自己在森林里的遭遇，可是，她每讲一句话，嘴里就跳出来一只癞蛤蟆，把大家都吓坏了。
这一来继母更是气坏了，千方百计地盘算着怎么折磨丈夫的女儿，可是这姑娘却长得一天比一天更美。终于，继母取出一只锅子，架在火堆上 ，在里面煮线团。线团煮过之后，她把它捞出来，搭在姑娘的肩膀上，然后又给姑娘一把斧头，让她去结冰的小河，在冰面上凿一个洞，在洞里漂洗线团。姑娘顺从地来到河边，走到河中央凿冰。她正凿着，岸上驶来了一辆华丽的马车，里面坐着国王。马车停了下来，国王问："姑娘，你是谁？在这里干什么？"