The Little Lamb and the Little Fish

Once upon a time there were a Brother and Sister who loved one another very much. Their own mother was dead, but they had a stepmother who was very unkind to them, and did them privately all the injury she could. One day it happened that the two were playing with other children on the meadow before their house, in the middle of which was a pond which ran past one side of the house. Round this the children used to run, joining hands and singing,

“Eneke, Beneke, let me go,

And I will give my bird to you;

The bird shall fetch of straw a bunch,

And that the cow shall have to munch;

The cow shall give me milk so sweet,

And that I’ll to the baker take;

Who with it shall a small cake bake;

The cake the cat shall have to eat,

And for it catch a mouse for me,

Which I will turn to sausage meat,

And cut it all to pieces!”

While they sang they ran round and round, and upon whom the word “pieces” fell he had to run away, and the others must pursue him and catch him. The old Stepmother stood at her window and watched the game, which vexed her very much; but, as she understood witches’ arts, she wished that both of the children might be changed, the one into a lamb and the other into a fish. Thereupon the Brother swam round the pond in the form of a fish, and the Sister trotted to and fro on the meadow, sorrowful and unhappy, and would not eat or touch a single blade of grass. Thus a long time passed, till one day foreign strangers came to the castle on a visit. “Now is a good opportunity!” thought the Step-mother, and called the cook, and bade him fetch the lamb out of the meadow, for there was nothing else for the visitors. The cook went for the lamb, and leading it into the kitchen, tied it by the foot, that it might suffer patiently. While he went for his knife, and was sharpening it on the grindstone, to kill the poor animal with, a little fish swam up the gutter to the sink, and looked at him. But this fish was the Brother, and he had seen the cook carry away his lamb, and had swum from the pond to the house. When the lamb saw him, she cried,

“Ah! my brother in the pond,

Woe is in my heart so fond!

The cook is sharpening now his knife,

To take away my tender life!”

The fish replied:—

“Ah! my sister; woe is me,

That I am far away from thee!

Swimming in this deep, deep sea!”

When the cook heard the lamb speaking, and observed the sorrowful words which she said to the fish, he was frightened, for he thought it could not be a natural animal, but had been bewitched by the wicked woman in the house. So he said to the lamb, “Be still, I will not kill you!” And with these words he fetched another lamb and dressed it for the guests. Then he took the lamb to a good honest countrywoman, and told her all he had seen and heard. Now, this woman was in former days the nurse of the two children, and she conjectured what had really taken place, and went with them to a wise woman. This latter said a blessing over the lamb and fish, and thereby they regained their natural forms. Then the little Brother and Sister went into the forest and built for themselves a little cottage, in which they lived happily and contentedly, though alone.