“It ought to have been done long before this,” said she, and grew white with anger, but she meditated something new.

On the third morning she said to the girl, “Thou must build me a castle on the plain there, and it must be ready by the evening.”

The maiden was dismayed, and said, “How can I complete such a great work?”

“I will endure no opposition,” screamed the stepmother. “If thou canst empty a pond with a spoon that is full of holes, thou canst build a castle too. I will take possession of it this very day, and if anything is wanting, even if it be the most trifling thing in the kitchen or cellar, thou knowest what lies before thee!” She drove the girl out, and when she entered the valley, the rocks were there, piled up one above the other, and all her strength would not have enabled her even to move the very smallest of them. She sat down and wept, and still she hoped the old woman would help her.