Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction
The servants took Teenchy Duck and threw her in the well, thinking this
the easiest and the quickest way to dispose of her.
As Teenchy Duck was falling, she cried: "Come to my assistance, good
Ladder, or I am undone."
The Ladder immediately came out of the satchel, and leaned against the
walls of the well. Teenchy Duck came up the rounds, singing:
"Quack, quack! Give me back my beautiful money!"
Everybody was astonished, and the Prince's wife kept saying: "Give this
witch her money."
"They would say that I am afraid of a Teenchy Duck," said the Prince of
the Seven Golden Cows. "I will never give it up." Then, speaking to his
servants, he said: "Heat the oven; heat it to a white heat, and throw
this witch in."
The servants were compelled to obey, but they were so frightened that
none dared touch her. At last, one bolder than the rest seized her
by the end of the wing and threw her in the red-hot oven. Everybody
thought that this was the end of Teenchy Duck, but she had had time to
cry out:
"Oh, my dear friend River, come to my assistance, or I shall be roasted."
The River rushed out and quenched the fire and cooled the oven.
When the Prince went to see what was left of Teenchy Duck, she met him,
and began to repeat her familiar refrain:
"Quack, quack! Give me back my beautiful money!"
The Prince of the Seven Golden Cows was furious.
"You are all blockheads!" he cried to his servants. "You never knew
how to do anything. Get out of here! I will drive you off the place!
Hereafter I will take charge of this fiend myself."
That night, before retiring, the Prince and his wife went and got
Teenchy Duck, and prepared to give her such a beating as they had no
doubt would cause her death.
Fortunately, Teenchy Duck saw the danger and cried out:
"Friend Bees! come out and help me."
A buzzing sound was heard, and then the Bees swarmed on the Prince and
his wife, and stung them so terribly that they became frightful to
behold.
"Return the money to this ugly witch," groaned the unfortunate wife.
"Run, or we are done for."
The Prince did not wait to be told twice. He ran and got the purse full
of gold, and returned it to Teenchy Duck.
"Here," said he, "I am conquered. But get out of my grounds quickly."
Full of joy, Teenchy Duck went out into the road singing: "Quack,
quack! I have got my beautiful money! Quack, quack! Here is my
beautiful money!"
On her way home she returned the friends that had aided her to the
places where she had found them, thanking them kindly for their
assistance in time of need.
At break of day Teenchy Duck found herself at her master's door. She
aroused him by her loud cries. After that, the family was rich, but the
master and mistress were not happy, for they knew the money did not
belong to them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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