was spinning late one evening. It was during
the night between a Tuesday and a Wednesday. She had
been left alone for a long time, and after midnight, when the
first cock crew, she began to think about going to bed, only she
would have liked to finish spinning what she had in hand. "Well,"
thinks she, "I'll get up a bit earlier in the morning, but just
now I want to go to sleep." So she laid down her hatchel--but
without crossing herself--and said:

"Now then, Mother Wednesday, lend me thy aid, that I may
get up early in the morning and finish my spinning." And then
she went to sleep.

Well, very early in the morning, long before it was light, she
heard some one moving, bustling about the room. She opened
her eyes and looked. The room was lighted up. A splinter of
fir was burning in the cresset, and the fire was lighted in the
stove. A woman, no longer young, wearing a white towel by
way of head-dress, was moving about the cottage, going to and
fro, supplying the stove with firewood, getting everything ready.
Presently she came up to the young woman, and roused her, saying,
"Get up!" The young woman got up, full of wonder, saying:

"But who art thou? What hast thou come here for?"

"I am she on whom thou didst call. I have come to thy aid."

"But who art thou? On whom did I call?"

"I am Wednesday. On Wednesday surely thou didst call.
See, I have spun thy linen and woven thy web: now let us bleach
it and set it in the oven. The oven is heated and the irons are
ready; do thou go down to the brook and draw water."

The woman was frightened, and thought: "What manner of
thing is this?" (or, "How can that be?") but Wednesday glared
at her angrily; her eyes just did sparkle!

So the woman took a couple of pails and went for water. As
soon as she was outside the door she thought: "Mayn't something
terrible happen to me? I'd better go to my neighbor's instead
of fetching the water." So she set off. The night was
dark. In the village all were still asleep. She reached a neighbor's
house, and rapped away at the window until at last she
made herself heard. An aged woman let her in.

"Why, child!" says the old crone; "whatever hast thou got
up so early for? What's the matter?"

"Oh, granny, this is how it was. Wednesday has come to me,
and has sent me for water to buck my linen with."

"That doesn't look well," says the old crone. "On