The Water Fairy
A little brother and a little sister were playing by a well, and while they were playing there they both fell in. A water fairy was down there. She said,
“Now I have you. Now you will have to work for me.“
She gave the girl tangled dirty flax to spin, and she had to fill a bottomless barrel with water. The boy had to chop down a tree with a dull ax, and all they got to eat were dumplings as hard as rocks.
Finally the children became so impatient, that they waited until one Sunday when the fairy was away and then they ran away. When the fairy came back, she saw that the children had run away and she started to follow them.
The children saw her from afar, and the girl threw a brush behind her, which turned into a large brush-mountain with thousands and thousands of spikes, which the fairy had to climb over with great difficulty, but she finally got to the other side.
When the children saw this the boy threw a comb behind him, which turned into a large comb-mountain with a thousand times a thousand teeth, but the fairy was able to keep hold of them, and finally got to the other side.
Then the girl threw a mirror behind her, which turned into a glass mountain, which was so slippery that it was impossible for the fairy to climb over it.
Then she thought,
“I will quickly go home and get my ax and chop the glass mountain in two.“
However, by the time she returned and had chopped up the glass mountain, the children were very far away. So the water fairy had to trudge back to her well.
