PART TWO

The girl was crying again, when the door magically opened, the little man came in and said, "What will you give me if I spin the straw into gold for you this time?"

"The ring on my finger," answered the girl.

The little man took the ring, again he began to turn the wheel, and by morning had spun all the straw into glittering gold.

The king rejoiced beyond measure at the sight, but he wanted even more gold, and he took the miller's daughter into a still larger room full of straw, and said, "You must spin this, too, in the course of this night, if you succeed, you shall be my wife, but if you fail – well, let’s just say that you’d better not fail – you know what will happen to you if you do."

Nasty! Just because he was a king, he thought every girl wants to marry him – and, to tell you the truth, he was right, most of them did. The king liked the idea of marrying this one, he had noticed the miller’s daughter’s beauty, but the gift of spinning straw into gold was what he found to be really attractive about her. He was greedy, you see.

When the girl was alone and crying – AGAIN - the goblin came for the third time, and said, "What will you give me if I spin the straw into gold for you now?"

"I have nothing left to give - you’ve got it all." Answered the girl.

"Then promise me, if you should become queen, to give me your first-born child."

The girl thought about it, who knows whether that will ever happen? That’s all in the future. And since there is no future if you’re dead, and, not knowing how else to help herself, she promised the goblin what he wanted. Happily, he once more spun the straw into gold.

When the king came in the morning, and found all that lovely gold filling the room, he married her, and the pretty miller's daughter became a queen. After a while though, the king told her it was about time she got busy making some more gold out of straw, but as I told you, the girl was clever, and before long the greedy king died of ‘natural causes.’