After a hard day’s work chopping wood in the forest with my father, we got home, and then my father said, “Oh, no, I left my axe in the forest!” He asked my stepmother if she would send her daughter out. She hadn’t worked all day in the cold...
One day when I was hunting, I came upon a strange sight. A python had wrapped himself around an antelope, and the antelope had stabbed the python. He had pinned him to a tree. The python couldn’t move, and the antelope couldn’t get his horn out of the...
The witch who cast a spell on me turned me into an old man with a long white beard. The spell would not break unless I met a girl who loved animals as much as she loved human beings. The witch was certain that I would never meet such a person. But there you are, sweet...
When I came to the hut in the woods, I was very upset because I had not found my father. He would not have had anything to eat. The windows were lit up, so I knocked on the door, and a rough voice cried, “Come in.” I stepped into the dark entrance and...
The king thought I had a green thumb because I presented him with the largest turnip anyone had ever seen. It was as big as the wagon I put it in when I brought it to the castle. I told him that I’m really not favored by Lady Fortune in any way. I’m a poor soldier who...
My two sisters and I sat around a table in our underwater palace and raised our shell cups to make a toast. One of my sisters drank to the health of a youth who wasn’t the least perturbed when she, in the form of a corpse, had tried to grab him from the grave....
In the beginning (you wouldn’t know it now, because I am very rich) I was very poor. One day, when I had only a handful of flour left in the larder, and no money to buy any more, nor any hope of earning anything, I carried my little brass pot down to the river....
One can never know what good will come of bad and so I give thanks for everything. When the king cut off his finger, I suggested that it might improve his hearing. When he lost his temper and sent me to prison, I thanked him. Of course, I had no idea what went on with...
Abeille, the human girl, was carried to me by the gnomes on a litter made of moss and twigs. She had wounded her foot. She was very big, and very beautiful, and I declared that I would grant her every wish. What did she want? A pair of shoes, she said. I struck the...
When I brought my basket of figs to the king, I rang the castle bell with a trembling heart. You see, I had given half my figs to an old man I met on the road. When he was finished helping himself, he covered the basket and told me not to be anxious. The basket would...
