A poor old woman who lived with her one little granddaughter in a
wood was out gathering sticks for fuel, and found a green stalk of
sugar-cane, which she added to her bundle. She presently met an elf in
the form of a wild Boar, that asked her for the cane, but she declined
giving it to him, saying that, at her age, to stoop and to rise again
was to earn what she picked up, and that she was going to take the
cane home, and let her little granddaughter suck its sap. The Boar,
angry at her refusal, said that he would, during the coming night, eat
her granddaughter instead of the cane, and went off into the wood.
When the old woman reached her cabin she sat down by the door and
wailed, for she knew she had no means of defending herself against the
Boar. While she sat crying, a vender of needles came along and asked
her what was the matter. She told him, and he said that all he could
do for her was to give her a box of needles. This he did, and went on
his way. The old woman stuck the needles thickly over the lower half
of her door, on its outer side, and then she went on crying. Just then
a man came along with a basket of crabs, heard her lamentations, and
stopped to inquire what ailed her. She told him, and he said he knew
no help for her, but he would do the best he could for her by giving
her half his crabs. The old woman put the crabs in her water-jar,
behind her door, and again sat down and cried. A farmer soon came
along from the fields, leading his ox, and he also asked the cause of
her distress and heard her sad story. He said he was sorry he could
not think of any way of preventing the evil she expected, but that he
would leave his ox to stay all night with her, as it might be a sort
of company for her in her loneliness. She led the ox into her cabin,
tied it to the head of her bedstead, gave it some straw, and then
cried again.
A courier, returning on horseback from a neighboring town, next passed
her door, and dismounted to inquire what troubled her. Having heard
her tale, he said he would leave his horse to stay with her, and make
the ox more contented. So she tied the horse to the foot of her bed,
and, thinking how surely evil was coming upon her with the night,
she burst out crying anew. A boy just then came along with a
snapping-turtle that he had caught, and stopped to ask what had
happened to her. On learning the cause of her weeping, he said it was
of no use to contend against sprites, but that he would give her his
snapping-turtle as a proof, of his sympathy. She took the turtle, tied
it in front of her bedstead, and continued to cry.
Some men who were carrying mill-stones then came along, inquired
into her trouble, and expressed their compassion by giving her a
mill-stone, which they rolled into her back yard. A little later a man
arrived carrying hoes and pickax, and asked her why she was crying so
hard. She told him her grief, and he said he would gladly help her if
he could, but he was only a well-digger, and could do nothing for her
other than to dig her a well. She pointed out a place in the middle of
her back yard, and he went to work and quickly dug a well.
On his departure the old woman cried again, until a paper-seller came
and inquired what was the matter. When she had told him, he gave her
a large sheet of white paper, as a token of pity, and she laid it
smoothly over the mouth of the well.
Nightfall came; the old woman shut and barred her door, put her
granddaughter snugly on the wall-side of the bed, and then lay down
beside her, to await the foe.
At midnight the Boar came, and threw himself against the door to break
it in. The needles wounded him sorely, so that when he had gained
an entrance he was heated and thirsty, and went to the water-jar to
drink. When he thrust in his snout the crabs attacked him, clung to
his bristles and pinched his ears, till he rolled over and over to
disencumber himself. Then in a rage he approached the front of the
bed, but the snapping-turtle nipped his tail, and made him retreat
under the feet of the horse, who kicked him over to the ox, who tossed
him back to the horse; and thus beset he was glad to escape to the
back yard to take a rest, and to consider the situation. Seeing a
clean paper spread on the ground, he went to lie upon it, and fell
into the well. The old woman heard the fall, rushed out, rolled the
mill-stone down on him, and crushed him.
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