Grimm's Household Tales

There was once a little girl who was obstinate and inquisitive, and when her parents told her to do anything, she did not obey them, so how could she fare well? One day she said to her parents, “I have heard so much about Frau Trude that I will go to her some day. People say that everything about her looks so strange, and that there are such odd things in her house, that I have become quite curious!” Her parents absolutely forbade her and said, “Frau Trude is a bad woman who does wicked things, and if you go to her, you are no longer our child.” But the girl did not let herself be turned aside by her parents’ prohibition, and she still went to Frau Trude. And when she got there, Frau Trude said, “Why are you so pale?” “Ah,” she replied, and her whole body trembled, “I have been so terrified by what I have seen.” “What have you seen?” “I saw a black man on your steps.” “That was a coal miner.” “Then I saw a green man.” “That was a huntsman.” “After that I saw a blood-red man.” “That was a butcher.” “Ah, Frau Trude, I was terrified. I looked through the window and saw not you but, as I truly believe, the devil himself with a head of fire.” “Oho!” said she. “Then you have seen the witch in her proper costume. I have been waiting for you and wanting you for a long time already. You shall give me some light.” Then she changed the girl into a block of wood and threw it into the fire. And when it was in full blaze, she sat down close to it and warmed herself by it, and said, “That shines bright for once.”