man spoiled her own daughter, but was always snapping at
the old man's daughter. Yet the old man's daughter was a good,
hard-working girl, while as for the old woman's daughter, she was but
an idle slut. She did nothing but sit down all day with her hands in
her lap. One day the old woman said to the old man's daughter, "Look
now, thou daughter of a dog, go and drive out the heifer to graze!
Here thou hast two bundles of flax. See that thou unravel it, and reel
it, and bleach it, and bring it home all ready in the evening!" Then
the girl took the flax and drove the heifer out to graze.

So the heifer began to graze, but the girl sat down and began to weep.
And the heifer said to her, "Tell me, dear little maiden, wherefore
dost thou weep?"--"Alas! why should I not weep? My stepmother has
given me this flax and bidden me unravel it, and reel it, and bleach
it, and bring it back as cloth in the evening."--"Grieve not, maiden!"
said the heifer, "it will all turn out well. Lie down to sleep!"--So
she lay down to sleep, and when she awoke the flax was all unravelled
and reeled and spun into fine cloth, and bleached. Then she drove the
heifer home and gave the cloth to her stepmother. The old woman took
it and hid it away, that nobody might know that the old man's daughter
had brought it to her.

The next day she said to her own daughter, "Dear little daughter,
drive the heifer out to graze, and here is a little piece of flax for
thee, unravel it and reel it, or unravel it not and reel it not as
thou likest best, but bring it home with thee." Then she drove the
heifer out to graze, and threw herself down in the grass, and slept
the whole day, and did not even take the trouble to go and moisten the
flax in the cooling stream. And in the evening she drove the heifer
back from the field and gave her mother the flax. "Oh, mammy!" she
said, "my head ached so the whole day, and the sun scorched so, that I
couldn't go down to the stream to moisten the flax."--"Never mind,"
said her mother, "lie down and sleep; it will do for another day."

And the next day she called the old man's daughter again, "Get up,
thou daughter of a dog, and take the heifer out to graze. And here
thou hast a bundle of raw flax; unravel it, heckle it, wind it on to
thy spindles, bleach it, weave with it, and make it into fine cloth
for me by the evening!"--Then the girl drove out the heifer to graze.
The heifer began grazing, but she sat down beneath a will