he lay all night,
waiting, waiting.

On the morrow, at midday, the wife of a shoemaker who dwelt near the
well went to draw water for her husband to drink, and she saw the shadow
of the girl in the tree, and thought it was her own shadow.

'How handsome I am, to be sure,' said she, gazing into the well, and as
she stopped to behold herself better, the jug struck against the stones
and broke in pieces, and she was forced to return to her husband without
the water, and this angered him.

'Thou hast turned crazy,' said he in wrath. 'Go thou, my daughter, and
fetch me a drink,' and the girl went, and the same thing befell her as
had befallen her mother.

'Where is the water?' asked the shoemaker, when she came back, and as
she held nothing save the handle of the jug he went to the well himself.
He too saw the reflection of the woman in the tree, but looked up to
discover whence it came, and there above him sat the most beautiful
woman in the world.

'Come down,' he said, 'for a while thou canst stay in my house,' and
glad enough the girl was to come.

Now the king of the country was about to marry, and the young men about
the court thronged the shoemaker's shop to buy fine shoes to wear at the
wedding.

'Thou hast a pretty daughter,' said they when they beheld the girl
sitting at work.

'Pretty she is,' answered the shoemaker, 'but no daughter of mine.'

'I would give a hundred pounds to marry her,' said one.

'And I,' 'And I,' cried the others.

'That is no business of mine,' answered the shoemaker, and the young men
bade him ask her if she would choose one of them for a husband, and to
tell them on the morrow. Then the shoemaker asked her, and the girl said
that she would marry the one who would bring his purse with him. So the
shoemaker hurried to the youth who had first spoken, and he came back,
and after giving the shoemaker a hundred pounds for his news, he sought
the girl, who was waiting for him.

'Is it thou?' inquired she. 'I am thirsty, give me a drink from the well
that is yonder.' And he poured out the water, but he could not move from
the place where he was; and there he stayed till many hours had passed
by.

'Take away that foolish boy,' cried the girl to the shoemaker at last,
'I am tired of him,' and then suddenly he was able to walk, and betook
himself to his home, but he did not tell the others what had happened to
him.

Next day there arrived one of the other young men, and in the even