way to market along a dirty road,
she would say out loud the night before, 'Why am I not already back from
Morlaix with my milk pot empty, my butter bowl inside it, a pound of
wild cherries on my wooden plate, and the money I have gained in my
apron pocket?' and in the morning when she got up, lo and behold! there
were standing at the foot of her bed the empty milk pot with the butter
bowl inside, the black cherries on the wooden plate, and six new pieces
of silver in the pocket of her apron. And she believed that all this
was owing to Jegu, and she could no longer do without him, even in her
thoughts.

When things had reached this pass, the brownie told the young man that
he had better ask Barbaik to marry him, and this time the girl did not
turn rudely away, but listened patiently to the end. In her eyes he was
as ugly and awkward as ever, but he would certainly make a most useful
husband, and she could sleep every morning till breakfast time, just
like a young lady, and as for the rest of the day, it would not be
half long enough for all she meant to do. She would wear the beautiful
dresses that came when she wished for them, and visit her neighbours,
who would be dying of envy all the while, and she would be able to dance
as much as she wished. Jegu would always be there to work for her and
save for her, and watch over her. So, like a well-brought-up girl,
Barbaik answered that it should be as her father pleased, knowing quite
well that old Riou had often said that after he was dead there was no
one so capable of carrying on the farm.

The marriage took place the following month, and a few days later the
old man died quite suddenly. Now Jegu had everything to see to himself,
and somehow it did not seem so easy as when the farmer was alive. But
once more the brownie stepped in, and was better than ten labourers.
It was he who ploughed and sowed and reaped, and if, as happened,
occasionally, it was needful to get the work done quickly, the brownie
called in some of his friends, and as soon as it was light a host of
little dwarfs might have been seen in the fields, busy with hoe, fork or
sickle. But by the time the people were about all was finished, and the
little fellows had disappeared.

And all the payment the brownie ever asked for was a bowl of broth. From
the very day of her marriage Barbaik had noted with surprise and rage
that things ceased to be done for her as they had been done all the
weeks and months b