There was once a little girl who was very obstinate and disobedient. How could such a girl be happy? One day she said to her parents, "I have heard so much of the old witch that I will go and see her. People say that she is a wonderful old woman and has many marvelous things in her house and I am very curious to see them."
Her parents, however, forbade her from going, saying, "The witch is a wicked old woman who performs many ungodly deeds and if you go near her, you are no longer a child of ours."
The girl however would not turn back at her parents command. But went to the witch's house. When she arrived there the woman asked her, "Why are you so pale?"
“Ah!", replied she, trembling all over, "I am so frightened with what I have just seen."
“And what did you see?" inquired the old witch.
“I saw a black man on your steps."
“That was a collier", she replied.
“Then I saw a grey man."
"That was a sportsman", said the old woman.
“After him I saw a blood-red man."
“That was a butcher", replied the woman,
“But oh, I was most terrified", continued the girl, "When I peeped through your window, and saw none but a creature with a fiery head."
"Then you have seen the witch in her proper dress", said the old woman; "for you, I have long waited and now you shall give me light."
So saying she changed the girl into a block of wood and then threw it into the fire and when it was alight she sat down on the hearth and warmed herself and said, "And now for once it burns brightly!"
