The next day our lad sees that the young ladies are in the water. He goes and does as the Tartaro tells him; he takes the middle one of the three skins, the two young ladies take their skins, and the third asks him to give her hers. The lad will not give it her without her promise. The young lady will not give her word. He then says to her that he will not give it her at all. The young lady then says to him that he may reckon upon her, that she gives him her word, and that he shall go to-morrow to her father’s house, that he will take him as servant, and that he lives in such a place. The lad goes off then the next day and finds this beautiful house in a forest.
He asks if they want a servant? They tell him, “Yes,” but that there is a great deal of work to do there. The next morning (the father) takes him into the forest and says to him:
“You must pull up all these oaks with their roots, you must cut them into lengths, and put the trunks on one side, the branches on another, and the roots by themselves, each in their place. Afterwards you will plough the ground, then you will harrow it, then sow the wheat; you will then cut it, and you bring me at noon a little cake made out of this wheat, otherwise you will be put to death.”[49]
The lad says to him, “I will try.”
He goes then to the forest and sits down pensive. It was already eleven o’clock when the young lady appears to him. She says to him:
“Why are you like that, so sad? Have not I promised that I would help you? Shut your eyes, but all the worse for you if you shall open them.”
She throws a comb into the air,[50] and says:
“Comb, with thy power tear up these oaks with their roots, cut them into lengths, put the trunks together, and the branches, and the roots too by themselves.”
As soon as it was said it was done. She throws another comb, and says to it:
“Comb, with thy power turn up this ground, harrow it, and sow the wheat.”