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So she went upstairs to her room, and took a white handkerchief

out of her top drawer; then she set the boy's head again on his

shoulders, and bound it with the handkerchief so that nothing

could be seen, and placed him on a chair by the door with an

apple in his hand.

Soon after this, little Marleen came up to her mother who was

stirring a pot of boiling water over the fire, and said, 'Mother,

brother is sitting by the door with an apple in his hand, and he

looks so pale; and when I asked him to give me the apple, he did

not answer, and that frightened me.'

'Go to him again,' said her mother, 'and if he does not answer,

give him a box on the ear.' So little Marleen went, and said,

'Brother, give me that apple,' but he did not say a word; then

she gave him a box on the ear, and his head rolled off. She was

so terrified at this, that she ran crying and screaming to her

mother. 'Oh!' she said, 'I have knocked off brother's head,' and

then she wept and wept, and nothing would stop her.