Ashy haired Dovetail lent Liesl a chisel. Liesl pried up the church step where the eggs lay broken, and carried the stone carefully to her home. She put the step, eggs and all, on top the stove, and cooked it for an hour. Then she went to bed and slept soundly until the next morning.
At the appointed time, Liesl returned to the church and replaced the step in its spot. St. Nicholas and Krampus appeared a moment later. Lukas sat before a dozen fragile eggs, every piece of shell carefully glued in place. He looked haggard. The miller and his wife, and the woodsman’s daughter, stood half asleep just inside the church doors.
Krampus and St. Nicholas examined his eggs and saw that they were whole with not a single fragment out of place. “You have worked hard indeed to do this all on your own!” Exclaimed St. Nicholas. Liesl said nothing, for he had worked hard enough, and she could see Wilda had come to love him.
Even Krampus was impressed. “Perhaps you are not wicked after all,” he said grudgingly to the boy.
St. Nicholas and Krampus turned to Liesl and her broken eggs. “You look well rested,” sneered Krampus. “Did you give up? I’ll make you my bride, and only beat you twice a day. If you don’t please me, I’ll devour you.”
She tipped the step up flat. The egg stayed baked to its surface. “The eggs are broken,” she said, “but they are fixed to the step.”
St. Nicholas chuckled, but Krampus roared with anger. He grabbed Liesl by the hair and bent her double. Then he pulled a thick stick from his sack and beat Liesl with it until she cried out, leaving bruises up and down her body.
“You’ll both need to do more to prove you are not wicked,” he said to Liesl and Lukas. Lukas groaned. Liesl glared defiantly, still aching from the beating. Krampus grinned, thinking how much he’d enjoy beating her every day.
St Nicholas waved his staff, and Lukas and Liesl each wore a Loden cape covered with a thousand bells. When they moved, the bells tinkled. “Silence the bells by this time tomorrow. If you run down the steps without them making a sound, you will be forgiven.”
“If even one bell rings,” said Krampus, “I’ll take you away to my lair forever.” Krampus leered at Liesl then turned, and St. Nicholas followed him down the church steps.
Lukas slumped to the ground, bells jingling. “I am lost!” He cried. Sleepily Wilda emerged from the church. When she saw the bells, and Lukas’s despair, she crouched beside him. She tore a strip of cloth from her skirt and her skillful hands tied the rag around a tiny bell clapper to quiet it. Getting the idea, Lukas tore a strip from his shirt, and together they bent their heads over the thousand bells while the miller and his wife slept just inside the church doors.
Liesl couldn’t cover each bell clapper on her own. Her bruises ached and her task seemed hopeless. At the bottom of the steps, dark eyed Strudel skipped around a wide patch of mud, carrying loaves to the store. Liesl had an idea.
The bells tinkled as she walked down the steps and waded into the icy mud. She rolled around, covering her cloak with muck as curious townspeople walked past, staring. Then she climbed carefully to her feet and stood still for an hour, trying not to shiver as the mud dried into a hard ball inside each bell. Once she was dry she walked home. Not a single bell rang as she walked.