Celts -- Folklore; Fairy tales; Fairy tales -- Great Britain; Folklore -- Great Britain; Tales -- Great Britain
Smallhead went toward a forge near the castle. The smith had a wife far
younger than himself, and a stepdaughter. They were no beauties. In the
rear of the forge was a well and a tree growing over it. "I will go up
in that tree," thought Smallhead, "and spend the night in it." She went
up and sat just over the well. She was not long in the tree when the
moon came out high above the hill tops and shone on the well. The
blacksmith's stepdaughter, coming for water, looked down in the well,
saw the face of the woman above in the tree, thought it her own face,
and cried:
"Oh, then, to have me bringing water to a smith, and I such a beauty.
I'll never bring another drop to him." With that she cast the pail in
the ditch and ran off to find a king's son to marry.
When she was not coming with the water, and the blacksmith waiting to
wash after his day's work in the forge, he sent the mother. The mother
had nothing but a pot to get the water in, so off she went with that,
and coming to the well saw the beautiful face in the water.
"Oh, you black, swarthy villain of a smith," cried she, "bad luck to the
hour that I met you, and I such a beauty. I'll never draw another drop
of water for the life of you!"
She threw the pot down, broke it, and hurried away to find some king's
son.
When neither mother nor daughter came back with water the smith himself
went to see what was keeping them. He saw the pail in the ditch, and,
catching it, went to the well; looking down, he saw the beautiful face
of a woman in the water. Being a man, he knew that it was not his own
face that was in it, so he looked up, and there in the tree saw a woman.
He spoke to her and said:
"I know now why my wife and her daughter did not bring water. They saw
your face in the well, and, thinking themselves too good for me, ran
away. You must come now and keep the house till I find them."
"I will help you," said Smallhead. She came down, went to the smith's
house, and showed the road that the women took. The smith hurried after
them, and found the two in a village ten miles away. He explained their
own folly to them, and they came home.
The mother and daughter washed fine linen for the castle. Smallhead saw
them ironing one day, and said:
"Sit down: I will iron for you."
She caught the iron, and in an hour had the work of the day done.
The women were delighted. In the evening the daughter took the linen to
the housekeeper at the castle.
"Who ironed this linen?" asked the housekeeper.
"My mother and I."
"Indeed, then, you did not. You can't do the like of that work, and tell
me who did it."
The girl was in dread now and answered:
"It is a woman who is stopping with us who did the ironing."
The housekeeper went to the Queen and showed her the linen.
"Send that woman to the castle," said the Queen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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