Fir - Apple

Once on a time as a forester was going into the wood he heard a cry like that of a child, and walking in the direction of the sound he came to a fir-tree on which sat a little boy. A mother had gone to sleep under the tree with her child in her lap, and while she slept a golden eagle had seized it, and borne it away to the topmost bough in his beak. So the forester mounted and fetched the child down, and took it home to be brought up with his daughter Helen, and the two grew up together. The boy whom he had rescued he named Fir-apple, in remembrance of his adventure, and Helen and the boy loved each other so fondly, that they were quite unhappy whenever they were separated. This forester had also an old cook, who one evening took two pails and went to fetch water; but she did not go once only, but many times, to the spring. Little Helen, seeing her, asked, “Why do you carry in so much water, old Sarah?”

“If you will promise not to tell any one, I will let you know,” replied the Cook.

Little Helen promised not to tell, and the Cook said, “Early in the morning, when the forester is away to the chase, I shall heat the water, and when it boils I shall throw in Fir-apple and stew him!”

The next day the forester arose with the sun and went out, while the children were still in bed. Then Helen said to Fir-apple, “Forsake me not, and so I will never leave you;” and he replied, “Now and for ever I will stay with you.”

“Do you know,” continued Helen, “yesterday the old cook fetched ever so many pails of water, and I asked her why she did so, and she said to me, ‘If you do not say anything I will tell you;’ and, as I promised not to tell, she said, early this morning, when father has gone out, she should boil the copper full of water and stew you in it. But let us get up very quickly, and escape while there is time.” So saying, they both arose, and dressing themselves very hastily, ran away as quickly as they could. When the water had become boiling hot the old Cook went into the sleeping-room to fetch Fir-apple, but lo! as soon as she entered and stepped up to the beds, she perceived that both the children were off, and at the sight she grew very anxious, saying to herself, “What shall I say if the forester comes home and finds both the children gone? I must send after them and fetch them back.”

Thus thinking, she sent after them three slaves, bidding them overtake the children as quickly as possible and bring them home. But the children saw the slaves running towards them, and little Helen said, “Forsake me not, and so I will never leave you.”

“Now and always I will keep by you,” replied Fir-apple.

“Do you then become a rose-stock, and I will be the bud upon it,” said Helen.

So, when the slaves came up, the children were nowhere to be found, and only a rose-tree with a single bud thereon to be seen, and the three agreed there was nothing to do, and went home and told the old cook they had seen nothing at all in the world but a rose-tree with a single flower upon it. At their tale the old Cook began to scold terribly, and said, “You stupid simpletons, you should have cut the rose-bush in two, and broken off the flower and brought it home to me; make haste now and do so.” For the second time they had to go out and search, and, the children seeing them at a distance, little Helen asked her companion the same question as the first time, and when he gave the same reply she said, “Do you then become a church and I will be the crown therein.”

When now the three slaves approached, they found nothing but a church and a crown inside, so they said to one another, “What can we do here? let us go home.” As soon as they reached the house, the cook inquired what they had found, and when they had told their tale she was very angry, and told them they ought to have pulled down the church and brought the crown home with them. When she had finished scolding she set out herself, walking with the three slaves, after the children, who espied her coming from a distance. This time little Helen proposed that she should become a pond, and Fir-apple a duck, who should swim about on it, and so they changed into these immediately. When the old woman came up and saw the pond, she lay down by it and began to drink it up, but the duck swam very quickly towards her, and without her knowledge stuck his beak into her cap and drew her into the water, where, after vainly endeavouring to save herself, she sank to the bottom.

After this the children returned home together and were very happy; and, if they are not dead, I suppose they are still alive and merry.