and a beautifully spread table will stand before you, with the most
delicious food on it, so that you can eat as much as you want. And when
you have had enough and don’t want the little table any more, you have
only to say,
“Little goat, bleat, Little table, away,”
and then it will vanish.’ Then the wise woman went away.
But Little Two-eyes thought, ‘I must try at once if what she has told me
is true, for I am more hungry than ever’; and she said,
‘Little goat, bleat, Little table appear,’
and scarcely had she uttered the words, when there stood a little table
before her covered with a white cloth, on which were arranged a plate,
with a knife and fork and a silver spoon, and the most beautiful dishes,
which were smoking hot, as if they had just come out of the kitchen.
Then Little Two-eyes said the shortest grace she knew, and set to work
and made a good dinner. And when she had had enough, she said, as the
wise woman had told her,
‘Little goat, bleat, Little table, away,’
and immediately the table and all that was on it disappeared again.
‘That is a splendid way of housekeeping,’ thought Little Two-eyes, and
she was quite happy and contented.
In the evening, when she went home with her goat, she found a little
earthenware dish with the food that her sisters had thrown to her, but
she did not touch it. The next day she went out again with her goat, and
left the few scraps which were given her. The first and second times
her sisters did not notice this, but when it happened continually, they
remarked it and said, ‘Something is the matter with Little Two-eyes, for
she always leaves her food now, and she used to gobble up all that was
given her. She must have found other means of getting food.’ So in
order to get at the truth, Little One-eye was told to go out with Little
Two-eyes when she drove the goat to pasture, and to notice particularly
what she got there, and whether anyone brought her food and drink.
Now when Little Two-eyes was setting out, Little One-eye came up to her
and said, ‘I will go into the field with you and see if you take good
care of the goat, and if you drive him properly to get grass.’ But
Little Two-eyes saw what Little One-eye had in her mind, and she drove
the goat into the long grass and said, ‘Come, Little One-eye, we will
sit down here, and I will sing you something.’
Little One-eye sat down, and as she was very much tired by the long walk
to which she was not used, and by the hot day, and as Little Two-eyes
went on singing.
‘Little One-eye, are you awake? Little One-eye, are you asleep?’
she shut her one eye and fell asleep. When Little Two-eyes saw that
Little One-eye was asleep and could find out nothing, she said,
‘Little goat, bleat, Little table, appear,’
and sat down at her table and ate and drank as much as she wanted. Then
she said again,
‘Little goat, bleat, Little table, away.’
and in the twinkling of an eye all had vanished.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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