efore. She complained to Jegu of his laziness, and he
only stared at her, not understanding what she was talking about. But
the brownie, who was standing by, burst out laughing, and confessed that
all the good offices she spoke of had been performed by him, for the
sake of Jegu, but that now he had other business to do, and it was high
time that she looked after her house herself.

Barbaik was furious. Each morning when she was obliged to get up before
dawn to milk the cows and go to market, and each evening when she had to
sit up till midnight in order to churn the butter, her heart was filled
with rage against the brownie who had caused her to expect a life of
ease and pleasure. But when she looked at Jegu and beheld his red face,
squinting eyes, and untidy hair, her anger was doubled.

'If it had not been for you, you miserable dwarf!' she would say between
her teeth, 'if it had not been for you I should never have married that
man, and I should still have been going to dances, where the young men
would have brought me present of nuts and cherries, and told me that
I was the prettiest girl in the parish. While now I can receive no
presents except from my husband. I can never dance, except with my
husband. Oh, you wretched dwarf, I will never, never forgive you!'

In spite of her fierce words, no one knew better than Barbaik how to
put her pride in her pocket when it suited her, and after receiving an
invitation to a wedding, she begged the brownie to get her a horse to
ride there. To her great joy he consented, bidding her set out for the
city of the dwarfs and to tell them exactly what she wanted. Full of
excitement, Barbaik started on her journey. It was not long, and when
she reached the town she went straight to the dwarfs, who were holding
counsel in a wide green place, and said to them, 'Listen, my friends! I
have come to beg you to lend me a black horse, with eyes, a mouth, ears,
bridle and saddle.'

She had hardly spoken when the horse appeared, and mounting on his back
she started for the village where the wedding was to be held.

At first she was so delighted with the chance of a holiday from the work
which she hated, that she noticed nothing, but very soon it struck
her as odd that as she passed along the roads full of people they all
laughed as they looked at her horse. At length she caught some words
uttered by one man to another. 'Why, the farmer's wife has sold her
horse's tail!' and turned in her