The voice replied, “Here I am among the roots of the oak tree. Let me out! Let me out!”
The scholar therefore began to search at the foot of the tree where the roots spread. Finally in a little hollow, he found a glass bottle. He picked it up and held it so he could look through toward the light. Then he perceived a thing inside shaped like a frog which kept jumping up and down.
“Let me out! Let me out!” the thing cried again; and the scholar, not suspecting any evil, drew the stopper from the bottle.
Immediately the little creature sprang forth, and it grew and grew until in a few moments it stood before the scholar a frightful goblin half as tall as the oak tree. “Do you know what your reward is for letting me out of that glass bottle?” the goblin cried with a voice of thunder.
“No,” the scholar answered without fear, “how should I?”
“Then I will tell you that I must break your neck,” the goblin announced.
“You should have told me that before,” the scholar said, “and you would have stayed where you were. But my head will remain on my shoulders in spite of you, for there are several people’s opinions to be asked yet about this matter.”
