The Water-Nix

A little brother and sister were playing by a well. While they played, they both fell in. A water-nix lived down below. She said, "Now I have you! Now you will work hard for me!" and carried them away. She gave the girl dirty, tangled flax to spin. The girl had to fetch water in a bucket with a hole in it. The boy had to chop down a tree with a blunt axe. They got nothing to eat but dumplings as hard as stones.

At last, the children grew so impatient that they waited until Sunday, when the water-nix went to church. Then they ran away. But when church was over, the water-nix saw that the birds had flown. She followed them with long strides.

The children saw her coming from far away. The girl threw a brush behind her. It turned into a huge hill of bristles with thousands of spikes. The water-nix scrambled over it with great difficulty, but she got across.

When the children saw this, the boy threw a comb behind him. It turned into a great hill of combs with a thousand times a thousand teeth. The water-nix balanced carefully and crossed over.

Then the girl threw a looking-glass behind her. It formed a hill of mirrors, so slippery that the water-nix could not cross. She thought, "I will go home quickly and fetch my axe to cut the glass hill in half." But long before she returned and cut through the glass, the children had escaped far away. The water-nix had to go back to her well.