'It must be my grandmother!' she said to herself, and the thought gave her such courage that she stopped to put on her dainty little slippers before running from the room.

While doing this she caught sight of a long cloak of sky-blue, thrown over the back of a chair by the bedside.

She had never seen it before but it was evidently waiting for her.

She put it on, and then, feeling with the forefinger of her right hand, soon found her grandmother's thread, which she proceeded at once to follow, expecting it would lead her straight up the old stair.

When she reached the door she found it went down and ran along the floor, so that she had almost to crawl in order to keep a hold of it.