` What can it be ? ' he said to his wife . ` Ah ! do not look at it , ' she answered , ` for it comes from the house of a wicked witch whom no man can manage to kill . ' But the princess had better have kept silence , for her words made her husband 's heart burn within him , and he longed to try his strength against the witch 's cunning . And all day long the feeling grew stronger , till the next morning he mounted his horse , and in spite of his wife 's tears , he rode off to the mountain . The distance was greater than he thought , and it was dark before he reached the foot of the mountain ; indeed , he could not have found the road at all had it not been for the bright light , which shone like the moon on his path . At length he came to the door of a fine castle , which had a blaze streaming from every window . He mounted a flight of steps and entered a hall where a hideous old woman was sitting on a golden chair . She scowled at the young man and said , ` With a single one of the hairs of my head I can turn you into stone . ' ` Oh , what nonsense ! ' cried he . ` Be quiet , old woman . What could you do with one hair ? ' But the witch pulled out a hair and laid it on his shoulder , and his limbs grew cold and heavy , and he could not stir . Now at this very moment the younger brother was thinking of him , and wondering how he had got on during all the years since they had parted . ' I will go to the fig-tree , ' he said to himself , ` to see whether he is alive or dead . ' So he rode through the forest till he came where the fig-tree stood , and cut a slit in the bark , and waited . In a moment a little gurgling noise was heard , and out came a stream of blood , running fast . ` Ah , woe is me ! '
he XXXXX bitterly .
cried found laid mounted rode running stir thinking waited wondering