488 NURSERY RHYMES.

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having no other utensil she could use for the purpose, she was
obliged to go home without bringing any water. When her
mother returned, she was unfortunately troubled with excessive
thirst, and the girl, though trembling for the consequences of her
misfortune, told her exactly the circumstance that had occurred.
The old woman was furiously angry, and so far from making any
allowances for her daughter, pointed to a sieve which happened
to be on the table, and told her to go at once to the well and
bring her some water in that, or never venture to appear again
in her sight.

The young maiden, frightened almost out of her wits by her
mother’s fury, speedily took the sieve, and though she considered
the task a hopeless one to accomplish, almost unconsciously
hastened to the well.

When she arrived there, beginning to reflect on the painful
situation in which she was placed, and the utter impossibility of
her obtaining a living by herself, she threw herself down on the
brink of the well in an agony of despair. Whilst she was in this
condition, a large frog came up to the top of the water, and asked
her what she was crying for so bitterly. She was somewhat sur-
prised at this, but not being the least frightened, told him the
whole story, and that she was crying because she could not carry
away water in the sieve. “Is that all?” said the frog; “cheer
up, my hinny! tor if you will only let me sleep with you for two
nights, and then chop off my head, I will tell you how to do it.”
The maiden thought the frog could not be in earnest, but she
was too impatient to consider much about it, and at once made
the required promise. The frog then instructed her in the follow-
ing words: s