She grabbed the rat

The whole week passed, and still she was unable to persuade the troll child to eat anything. She placed every possible good thing in front of him, but the troll merely whimpered and spat when she pressed the delicacies on him.

One evening, when it really did look as is he were dying of hunger, the cat ran into the room with a rat in its mouth. She grabbed the rat out out of the cat's mouth, threw it to the troll child, and rushed out of the room so that she wouldn't have to watch it eating.

But when her husband found out that she really was collecting frogs and spiders for the changeling, he was gripped by such a loathing for her that he could no longer hide it. He found it impossible to speak kindly to her. Yet she still retained enough of her old power that he could not leave.

This was not all. The servants, too, began to disobey and disrespect her. The husband pretended not to notice what was happening, and his wife understood that if she continued to defend the changeling, she would suffer through every day God sent. But she was a woman who had no choice: if there were anyone, whom everybody hated, she had to help the poor victim in every way she could. And the more she was made to suffer for the changeling's sake, the more faithfully she guarded him from harm.