Once on a time there were two poor children named Margaret and Henry. They were sister and brother. Their parents were dead and had left them nothing, so they were forced to beg their bread. They were too young to work hard. Henry was scarcely twelve years old and Margaret still younger. Every evening they would knock at some door, and many and many a time they were kindly taken in and given something to eat and drink, and perhaps some little new piece of clothing.
One evening they came to a cottage that was standing by itself. They tapped at the window and asked an old woman who put out her head, whether they could stop with her for the night. "For my part," she answered, "I will keep you all night, but my husband is a grim troll, and if he gets to know it you are lost, for he eats anything young and tender, and therefore all the little children in his way."
When the children heard this they were terribly frightened; but it was already dark and they could go no further. So they let the old woman hide them in a large tub. There they rested as quiet as mice, but they could not sleep. In about an hour's time they heard the heavy tread of the troll. As soon as he came in, he began to scold his wife because she had not prepared any food for supper. In the morning he left the house again and made such a noise going away that the children were awakened from their sleep by it.
As soon as they were up and dressed the woman gave them some breakfast. When they had finished, she said to them, "Here are two brooms; now go upstairs and brush out all the rooms but one. There are twelve rooms in all, but you must only dust eleven and not meddle with the twelfth. Meanwhile I must go out. If you work hard, all may be done till I return."
The children set to at once and soon finished the eleven rooms; but Margaret was very curious to know what was in the twelfth room. Still, she dared not open the door, because they had been forbidden. Instead she peeped through the key-hole. Inside she saw a beautiful little cart with a little golden roebuck harnessed to it. She called to Henry at once, that he might peep too. After looking cautiously out to see that the old woman was not returning, they unlocked the door and went in. The roebuck said, "Who rides the cart, has a right to it." The astonished children drew the cart out in the yard, got into it and drove off as fast as they could. But after driving some little distance, they saw the old woman and her grim husband coming towards them on the same road. "Alas, my dear sister," cried Henry, "what shall we do? If the old woman discovers us, we are lost."
Margaret said, "I know a witching spell. I learnt it from Grandmother." She repeated,
Red rose, rose-how.
Show me as a rose right now.
At once they were changed into a rosebush. Margaret was the flower, Henry the thorns, the roebuck the stem and the cart formed the leaves.
In a short time the man-eater and his wife came up to them. The wife wanted to pluck the pretty rose, but the thorns pricked her finger so deeply that it bled and hastily drew back.
As soon as the old wretches were gone away, the children took back their natural forms and hastened on till they came to a baker's oven. It was full of bread. Out of its mouth came a voice which said, "Draw my bread, draw my bread!"
Margaret hurried and drew the loaves out and put them in the cart.
Then they went on further and came to a huge pear-tree, full of ripe fruit. From the tree came a voice, "Shake down my pears, shake down my pears!"
Margaret shook the tree at once, while Henry gathered up the fruit and put it in the cart.
Next they came to a grape-vine. It shouted, "Pluck my grapes, pluck my grapes!"
Margaret plucked them also and put them in the golden cart.
But in the meantime the man-eater and his wife got home and discovered to their great horror that the golden cart and the roebuck were all gone. The man-eater and his wife had robbed the cart and roebuck many years before. It was a special cart, for wherever it went, gifts were given to it from all sides, such as from trees and bushes, ovens and grape-vines. In this way man-eater and his wife had lived on good kinds of food for many years. The wife told about the two children who had been in the house while she was away, so they ran out and searched for the children in the hope of overtaking them. The couple hurried along with huge strides.
The children had stopped at a large pond when they heard the couple from afar. There was neither ferry nor bridge to carry them over. Only a flock of ducks were swimming about there. Margaret made the ducks swim to the shore by throwing bread to them. Then she sung,
Little ducks, little ducks, swim feather to feather
and make us a bridge to cross together.
The ducks did at once as she wished and formed a bridge. The children, the roebuck and the cart went over it and reached the other side safely.
Close behind them on the side they left, the man-eater came running along. As soon as he reached the shore, he bellowed the spell he had misheard,
Little ducks, little ducks, swim feather to feather
and form us a bridge we can walk on together . . .
The ducks accordingly formed themselves into a bridge again, and the two old wretches started walking over it. But when the couple had come to the middle of the pond where the water was deepest, the ducks had had enough of their heavy and trampling feet, so they plumped the couple into the water and swam away.
Henry and Margaret afterwards became very wealthy people. They remembered how bitterly they had suffered when they themselves had been beggars, and therefore gave away liberally to all the poor around them, for they had supplies enough, they said.
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