Page:Czech Folk Tales.pdf/173

Rh away, when, alas! she overtook them. She took them back and forced them to work, and they had to stay at home besides.

When the Waternick came home, she told him all about it, and the Waternick said: "Never mind. I'll set them to work, and they won't have time to think about making their way home."

So in the morning he took them to the forest and gave them a wooden hatchet and a wooden saw and bade them, fell the trees.

"When they are all cut down, you shall go back again."

So the Waternick left them, and the children began the work at once. They took the saw and tried to cut down a tree. But the saw soon broke and they were done for. So they took the hatchet, and the hatchet split in two after one stroke. They began to cry.

"Things look bad for us." they said.

Since they saw that they could not help themselves, they stayed where they were, and presently they fell asleep. I don't know how long they had been sleeping. But it was already time to go back.

The Waternick came and asked: "Have you finished?"