So a whole week went by, and every morning Eva caught the jackdaw and swept one toad-stool off with his tail. Now, Mr. Jackdaw did not at all approve of this, and in the morning, when he saw Eva coming, he would run away and hide himself. Then Eva would stoop down and pretend to whisper to one of the frogs; and the jackdaw, who was very inquisitive, would be so terribly afraid that something might be said that he would like to hear, that he would come running up in a great hurry, only to be caught and used as a living duster.
And when the week was over Eva presented herself to the Green Frog, and asked for her wages. And then the old Frog asked her what she wanted. And Eva did as the Toad-Woman had told her, and said she would like to go and consult her mother. This she was allowed to do, and Eva returned, by the same road by which the brown toad had led her, to the grotto behind the Cascade of Rocks.
There sat the Toad-Woman, fanning herself, just as if she had never moved since Eva first saw her. And she knew all about the work Eva had to do without Eva’s telling her. She told Eva to ask for the little green coat which hung at the head of her mistress’s bed (if you can call a pool of water a bed). “She will refuse you,” the woman went on, “but you must insist. You have earned it, and will get it in the end.”
Eva thanked her, and then returned to the hut. And sitting in the door was the Frog; and she said to her that she was ready for her wages.
“What am I to give you?” croaked the Frog.
“Nothing but the little green coat which hangs at the head of your bed.”
Then the Frog told her that she could not give her that, and offered her all sorts of beautiful things instead. But Eva insisted upon having the little green coat; and as fairies—even when they are bad fairies—are compelled to keep their promises or else lose their power, the Frog had to keep her word; and she told Eva that if she could find the little coat she might have it.
So Eva went into the hut and looked over the pool in which the Frog slept; and hanging against the wall were little green coats innumerable, which surprised Eva, for she never had seen anything hanging there before; and they all looked so much alike that she did not know which to choose. Then it seemed to her that a mist gathered in her eyes, and she raised her hand to rub it away, and then she saw, sitting on one of the little green coats, a beautiful, pure white moth; and then Eva saw that the other coats were only shadows, and the one on which the white moth sat was Aster’s coat. So she took it down, and the moth never moved,—and then it spoke:
“Do you remember the tiny worm that you saved from the crawling twig? I was that worm; and this is the first opportunity I have had to thank you for saving my life, and the best service I could render you was this.”
And without waiting to be thanked, the white moth spread her wings and was gone.