Mary arrives, hears the thought, and sits down and cries. John finds them crying, and says he will put on a new pair of shoes, and if, by the time they are worn out, he has not found three such big fools, he will save the child's life by not marrying Mary. He puts on the shoes, and sets out early the next morning.
Before he had gone far he came to a barn with the two doors wide open, and saw a man hard at work with a shovel, as if he was a shovelling something into the barn; but there was nothing in the shovel. "What be ye doing of, Measter?" says John. "I be a shovelling the sunshine in to dry the wheat as was carried in the wet." "What a fool ye be!" says John; "why don't you take out the sheaves, and lay 'em in the sun?" "Oh, God bless ye, Sir," says the man; "I wish ye'd come this way afore. Many a hard day's work ye'd a saved me." So John cut a notch in his stick for one fool, and went on.
He went a little further, and came to where a man was cutting at pebbles with a knife. "What be ye at, Measter?" says John. "I be a cutting of the pebbles to get at the kernels," says the man. "What a fool ye be!" says John "why don't ye get a masonter's hammer and split 'em, and then ye'll see whether there be any kernels or no." "Ah, God bless you, Sir," says the man "many a good knife ye'd a saved me if ye'd come this way afore." So John made another notch for the second fool.
The third is drawing a cow up the ladder, to eat the tussock of grass that grows every year in the thatch, and is equally thankful on being advised to cut it down and give it to the cow; for "many a good cow ye'd a saved me that I've throttled, if ye'd come this way afore." So John cut the third notch; and finding that folly was not peculiar to the family, went back and married Mary while his shoes were new. And they lived very happy, and she put a rail round the well, and the child was not drowned.
In this department of history, old women are the highest authorities, and it is desirable to fix their localities as nearly as we can. I heard the story from my nurse, a native of Souldern, Oxon., a village on the borders of Northamptonshire, and from another of Bucknel, fourteen miles north of Oxford.
A version of the Froschkönig is, or was, current in the same neighbourhood.
There was a farmer that had an only daughter; and she was very handsome, but proud. One day, when the servants were all afield, her mother sent her to the well for a pitcher of water. When she had let down the bucket, it was so heavy that she could hardly draw it up again; and she was going to let loose of it, when a voice in the well said, "Hold tight and pull hard, and good luck will come of it at last." So she held tight and pulled hard; and when the bucket came up there was nothing in it but a frog, and the frog said, "Thank you, my dear; I've been a long while in the well, and I'll make a lady of you for getting me out." So when she saw it was only a frog, she took no notice, but filled her pitcher and went home.
Now, when they were at supper, there came a knock at the door, and somebody outside said,—
"Open the door, my dearest sweet one,
And think of the well in the wood;