“Do you like them as well?” asked the fairy woman.
“I like them much better,” said Jack, putting them on. “How clever you are!”
“Would you like to wear these,” said the woman, “instead of yours?”
She gave Jack such a strange look when she said this, that he was afraid to take them, and answered:
“I shouldn’t like to wear them if you think I had better not.”
“Well,” she answered, “I am very honest, as I told you; and therefore I am obliged to say that if I were you I would not wear those stockings on any account.”
“Why not?” said Jack; for she looked so sweet tempered that he could not help trusting her.
“Why not?” repeated the fairy; “why, because when you have those stockings on, your feet belong to me.”
“Oh!” said Jack. “Well, if you think that matters, I’ll take them off again. Do you think it matters?”
“Yes,” said the fairy woman; “it matters, because I am a slave, and my master can make me do whatever he pleases, for I am completely in his power. So, if he found out that I had knitted those stockings for you, he would make me order you to walk into his mill—the mill which grinds the corn for the town; and there you would have to grind and grind till I got free again.”