36 Fairy Tales

and hoped that it might have been for him,
and in his heart he called the magpie
a stupid thing. It was, however, nothing
more or less than a looking-glass. The
woman was delighted. She was as vain
as a peacock, and no pedlars durst come
near the house on account of its evil repute,
so that she had had nothing better of late
than a bucket of water in which to admire
herself. Now she picked it up, and smiled,
and twisted her hair, and turned her head
first on one side and then on the other,
before holding it to her face. When she
did that something very strange happened,
for, as she held it upright, against her will
her tongue stole out as if it were drawn by
a magnet, and fixed itself tightly against
the centre of the glass, so that, although
she tried to get it away, she could not, and
the mirror remained standing straight before
her face, held there by her own tongue. She
screamed with rage, striking wildly at it,
and: her husband, waking out of his sleep,
stretched his huge limbs, and began to