house and makes her way home happily. The girl returns home, but faces the envy of her step-sister, who wants the same rewards. Her mother initially doesn't let her search for strawberries, but the step-sister begs until she is allowed. She is given a warm coat and good food, and soon finds the house with the three little men. However, she acts rudely towards them and refuses to clean. When she realizes she won't be given anything, she takes her leave. The three men decide to punish her for her behavior: the girl will grow uglier every day, toads will jump out from her mouth at every word, and she will die a horrible death. The step-sister returns home unhappily, and her mother is disgusted by the toads that come out of her mouth. The step-mother's hatred for her step-daughter increases day by day due to her becoming more beautiful. She dips yarn into boiling water and gives the girl an axe to cut a hole in an iced river to rinse it. During the time she is doing so, a king arrives in his coach and is infatuated with her beauty. He takes her along to his castle and marries her as the three men had foretold. Soon after, she has a baby boy. However, the step-mother hears of this and arrives with her daughter, pretending to visit. When they are alone, they both seize the queen and toss her out the window, where she falls into a stream and drowns. The woman's daughter is immediately given the place of the queen, and the king is told she is sick, so toads now come from her mouth instead of gold. During the night, the kitchen-boy witnesses a duck swim up the gutter and ask for the statuses of the king and baby. The boy answers they sleep quietly. The duck temporarily turns into the queen to care for her baby and swims off as a duck through the gutter. This happens again two more times: on the third, she tells the kitchen-boy to tell the king to brandish his sword over her three times. The boy tells the king, who does so, and the duck turns back into the queen, who comes back to life. The king hides his wife during his child's baptism to confront the step-mother and false queen. He asks the step-mother what the punishment should