“Alas!” said the widow, “last night all my neighbours insisted on having a piece, so that it is now entirely eaten.”
“Well,” replied the fay, “I will give you another loaf. So long as you or your children partake of it it will not grow smaller and will always remain fresh, but if you should give the least morsel to a stranger the loaf will disappear. But as I have helped you, so must you help me. I have four cows, and I wish to send them out to 79 pasture. Promise me that one of your daughters will guard them for me.”
The widow promised, and next morning sent one of her daughters out to look for the cows, which were to be pastured in a field where there was but little herbage. A neighbour saw her there, and asked what she was doing in that deserted place.
“Oh, I am watching the fairy cows,” replied she. The woman looked at her and smiled, for there were no cows there and she thought the girl had become half-witted.
With the evening the fairy of the grotto came herself to fetch the cows, and she said to the little cowherd:
“How would you like to be godmother to my child?”
“It would be a pleasure, madame,” replied the girl.
“Well, say nothing to any one, not even to your mother,” replied the fairy, “for if you do I shall never bring you anything more to eat.”
A few days afterward a fairy came to tell the girl to prepare to come to the cavern on the morrow, as on that day the infant was to be named. Next day, according to the fairy’s instructions, she presented herself at the mouth of the grotto, and in due course was made godmother to the little fairy. For two days she remained there, and when she left her godchild was already grown up. She had, as a matter of fact, unconsciously remained with the ‘good people’ for ten years, and her mother had long mourned her as dead. Meanwhile the fairies had requested the poor widow to send another of her daughters to watch their cows.
When at last the absent one returned to the village she went straight home, and her mother on beholding her gave a great cry. The girl could not understand her 80 agitation, believing as she did that she had been absent for two days only.