Little Two-eyes then woke Little One-eye and said, ‘Little One-eye, you
meant to watch, and, instead, you went to sleep; in the meantime the
goat might have run far and wide. Come, we will go home.’ So they went
home, and Little Two-eyes again left her little dish untouched, and
Little One-eye could not tell her mother why she would not eat, and said
as an excuse, ‘I was so sleepy out-of-doors.’
The next day the mother said to Little Three-eyes, ‘This time you shall
go with Little Two-eyes and watch whether she eats anything out in the
fields, and whether anyone brings her food and drink, for eat and drink
she must secretly.’ So Little Three-eyes went to Little Two-eyes and
said, ‘I will go 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 knew what
Little Three-eyes had in her mind, and she drove the goat out into the
tall grass and said, ‘We will sit down here, Little Three-eyes, and I
will sing you something.’ Little Three-eyes sat down; she was tired by
the walk and the hot day, and Little Two-eyes sang the same little song
again:
‘Little Three eyes, are you awake?’
but instead of singing as she ought to have done,
‘Little Three-eyes, are you asleep?’
she sang, without thinking,
‘Little _Two-eyes_, are you asleep?’
She went on singing,
‘Little Three-eyes, are you awake? Little _Two-eyes_, are you asleep?’
so that the two eyes of Little Three-eyes fell asleep, but the third,
which was not spoken to in the little rhyme, did not fall asleep. Of
course Little Three-eyes shut that eye also out of cunning, to look as
if she were asleep, but it was blinking and could see everything quite
well.
And when Little Two-eyes thought that Little Three-eyes was sound
asleep, she said her rhyme,
‘Little goat, bleat, Little table, appear,’
and ate and drank to her heart’s content, and then made the table go
away again, by saying,
‘Little goat, bleat, Little table, away.’
But Little Three-eyes had seen everything. Then Little Two-eyes came
to her, and woke her and said, ‘Well, Little Three-eyes, have you been
asleep? You watch well! Come, we will go home.’ When they reached home,
Little Two-eyes did not eat again, and Little Three-eyes said to the
mother, ‘I know now why that proud thing eats nothing. When she says to
the goat in the field,
“Little goat, bleat, Little table, appear,”
a table stands before her, spread with the best food, much better than
we have; and when she has had enough, she says,
“Little goat, bleat, Little table, away,”
and everything disappears again. I saw it all exactly. She made two
of my eyes go to sleep with a little rhyme, but the one in my forehead
remained awake, luckily!’
Then the envious mother cried out, ‘Will you fare better than we do? you
shall not have the chance to do so again!’ and she fetched a knife, and
killed the goat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account