第 七十四 章 · The Water-Nix

. The Water-Nix

A little brother and sister were once playing by a well, and while they

were thus playing, they both fell in. A water-nix lived down below, who

said, “Now I have got you, now you shall work hard for me!” and carried

them off with her. She gave the girl dirty tangled flax to spin, and

she had to fetch water in a bucket with a hole in it, and the boy had

to hew down a tree with a blunt axe, and they got nothing to eat but

dumplings as hard as stones. Then at last the children became so

impatient, that they waited until one Sunday, when the nix was at

church, and ran away. But when church was over, the nix saw that the

birds were flown, and followed them with great strides. The children

saw her from afar, and the girl threw a brush behind her which formed

an immense hill of bristles, with thousands and thousands of spikes,

over which the nix was forced to scramble with great difficulty; at

last, however, she got over. When the children saw this, the boy threw

behind him a comb which made a great hill of combs with a thousand

times a thousand teeth, but the nix managed to keep herself steady on

them, and at last crossed over that. Then the girl threw behind her a

looking-glass which formed a hill of mirrors, and was so slippery that

it was impossible for the nix to cross it. Then she thought, “I will go

home quickly and fetch my axe, and cut the hill of glass in half.” Long

before she returned, however, and had hewn through the glass, the

children had escaped to a great distance, and the water-nix was obliged

to betake herself to her well again.