“Long red things, stupid! with green leaves to them!” he shouted; and then, in a moment, he found himself at the bottom of the well.
The little old man was delighted to see him, and told him that he had lived down there forty years, and had never had a visitor before in all that time.
“Why do you live down here?” inquired the traveller.
“Because I cannot get out,” replied the little old man.
“But how did you get down here in the first place?”
“Really,” he said, “it is so long ago that I hardly remember. My impression is, however, that I came down in the bucket.”
“Then why, in the name of common-sense,” said the traveller, “don’t you go up in the bucket?”
The little old man sprang up from the three-legged stool, and flung his arms around the traveller’s neck. “My dear friend!” he cried rapturously. “My precious benefactor! Thank you a thousand times for those words! I assure you I never thought of it before! I will go up at once. You will excuse me?”
“Certainly,” said the traveller. “Go up first, and I will follow you.”
The little old man got into the bucket, and was drawn up to the top of the well. But, alas! when the cook saw his long red nose and his long green coat, she said to herself, “This must be a radish! How lucky I am!” and seizing the poor little old man, she popped him into the kettle without more ado. Then she let the bucket down for the traveller, calling to him to make haste, as she wanted to send down her master’s dinner.