"Is there anything else that I can do for you, so that I may get the money?" asked the widow.
"Well, I'll make it easier for you. There are two things I must tell you to cheer you."
"What are they?" asked the widow, eagerly.
"One is, that by our fairy law, I cannot take your boy, until three days have passed. Then, I shall come again, and you shall have the gold; but only on the one condition I have stated."
"And the next?" almost gasped the widow.
"If you can guess my name, you will doubly win; for then, I shall give you the gold and you can keep your boy."
Without waiting for another word, the lady in green scooped up her money, put it back in the bag, and moved off and out the door.
The poor woman, at once a widow and mother, and now stripped of her property, fearing to lose her boy, brooded all night over her troubles and never slept a wink.
In the morning, she rose up, left her baby with a neighbor, and went to visit some relatives in the next village, which was several miles distant. She told her story, but her kinsfolk were too poor to help her. So, all disconsolate, she turned her face homewards.
On her way back she had to pass through the woods, where, on one side, was a clearing. In the middle of this open space, was a ring of grass. In the ring a little fairy lady was tripping around and singing to herself.