There was an enchanted mill, so that no one could stay there,
because a she-wolf always haunted it. A soldier went once into the
mill to sleep. He made a fire in the parlour, went up into the
garret above, bored a hole with an auger in the floor, and peeped
down into the parlour. A she-wolf came in and looked about the mill
to see whether she could find anything to eat. She found nothing,
and then went to the fire, and said: 'Skin down! skin down! skin
down!' She raised herself upon her hind-legs, and her skin fell
down. She took the skin, and hung it on a peg, and out of the wolf
came a damsel. The damsel went to the fire, and fell asleep there.
He came down from the garret, took the skin, nailed it fast to the
mill-wheel, then came into the mill, shouted over her, and said:
'Good-morning, damsel! how do you do?' She began to scream: 'Skin on
me! skin on me! skin on me!' But the skin could not come down, for
it was fast nailed. The pair married, and had two children. As soon
as the elder son got to know that his mother was a wolf, he said to
her: 'Mamma! mamma! I have heard that you are a wolf.' His mother
replied: 'What nonsense you are talking! How can you say that I am a
wolf?' The father of the two children went one day into the field to
plough, and his son said: 'Papa, let me, too, go with you.' His
father said: 'Come.' When they had come to the field, the son asked
his father: 'Papa, is it true that our mother is a wolf?' His father
said: 'It is.' The son inquired: 'And where is her skin?' His father
said: 'There it is, on the mill-wheel.' No sooner had the son got
home, than he said at once to his mother: 'Mamma! mamma! you are a
wolf! I know where your skin is.' His mother asked him: 'Where is my
skin?' He said: 'There, on the mill-wheel.' His mother said to him:
'Thank you, sonny, for rescuing me.' Then she went away, and was
never heard of more.