Fundevogel

Fundevogel

[1: I. e., Bird-foundling.]

     There was once a forester who went into the forest to hunt, and as he
entered it he heard a sound of screaming as if a little child were there. He
followed the sound, and at last came to a high tree, and at the top of this a
little child was sitting, for the mother had fallen asleep under the tree with
the child, and a bird of prey had seen it in her arms, had flown down,
snatched it away, and set it on the high tree.

     The forester  climbed up, brought the child down, and thought to himself,
"Thou wilt take him home with thee, and bring him up with thy Lina." He took
it home, therefore, and the two children grew up together. The one, however,
which he had found on a tree was called Fundevogel, because a bird had carried
it away. Fundevogel and Lina loved each other so dearly that when they did not
see each other they were sad.

     The forester, however, had an old cook, who one evening took two pails
and began to fetch water, and did not go once only, but many times, out to the
spring. Lina saw this and said, "Hark you, old Sanna, why are you fetching so
much water?" "If thou wilt never repeat it to any one, I will tell thee why."
So Lina said, no, she would never repeat it to any one, and then the cook
said, "Early to-morrow morning, when the forester is out hunting, I will
heat the water, and when it is boiling in the kettle, I will throw in
Fundevogel, and will boil him in it."

     Betimes next morning the forester got up and went out hunting, and when
he was gone the children were still in bed. Then Lina said to Fundevogel, "If
thou wilt never leave me, I too will never leave thee." Fundevogel said,
"Neither now, nor ever will I leave thee." Then said Lina, "Then will I tell
thee. Last night, old Sanna carried so many buckets of water into the house
that I asked her why she was doing that, and she said that if I would promise
not to tell any one she would tell me, and I said I would be sure not to tell
any one, and she said that early to-morrow morning when father was out
hunting, she would set on the kettle full of water, throw thee into it and
boil thee; but we will get up quickly, dress ourselves, and go away together."

     The two children therefore got up, dressed themselves quickly, and went
away. When the water in the kettle was boiling, the cook went into the bed -
room to fetch Fundevogel and throw him into it. But when she came in, and went
to the beds, both the children were gone. Then she was terribly alarmed, and
she said to herself, "What shall I say now when the forester comes home and
sees that the children are gone? They must be followed instantly to get them
back again."

     Then the cook sent three servants after them, who were to run and
overtake the children. The children, however, were sitting outside the forest,
and when they saw from afar the three servants running, Lina said to
Fundevogel, "Never leave me, and I will never leave thee." Fundevogel said,
"Neither now, nor ever." Then said Lina, "Do thou become a rose-tree, and I
the rose upon it." When the three servants came to the forest, nothing was
there but a rose-tree and one rose on it, but the children were nowhere.
Then said they, "There is nothing to be done here," and they went home and
told the cook that they had seen nothing in the forest but a little rose -
bush with one rose on it. Then the old cook scolded and said, "You simpletons,
you should have cut the rose-bush in two, and have broken off the rose and
brought it home with you; go, and do it at once." They had therefore to go out
and look for the second time. The children, however, saw them coming from a
distance. Then Lina said, "Fundevogel, never leave me and I will never leave
thee." Fundevogel said, "Neither now, nor ever." Said Lina, "Then do thou
become a church, and I'll be the chandelier in it." So when the three servants
came, nothing was there but a church, with a chandelier in it. They said
therefore to each other, "What can we do here, let us go home." When they got
home, the cook asked if they had not found them; so they said no, they had
found nothing but a church, and that there was a chandelier in it. And the
cook scolded them and said, "You fools! why did you not pull the church to
pieces, and bring the chandelier home with you?" And now the old cook herself
got on her legs, and went with the three servants in pursuit of the children.
The children, however, saw from afar that the three servants were coming, and
the cook waddling after them. Then said Lina, "Fundevogel, never leave me, and
I will never leave thee." Then said Fundevogel, "Neither now, nor ever." Said
Lina, "Be a fishpond, and I will be the duck upon it." The cook, however, came
up to them, and when she saw the pond she lay down by it, and was about to
drink it up. But the duck swam quickly to her, seized her head in its beak and
drew her into the water, and there the old witch had to drown. Then the
children went home together and were heartily delighted, and if they are not
dead, they are living still.