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276 a huntsman to be trained, and when he had himself become an accomplished huntsman, he was taken into the service of the Lord of the village.

There lived in the village a beautiful and true-hearted girl, with whom the young huntsman fell in love. When his master knew of this he made him a present of a little house, and the two were married, and lived happily and peacefully together.

One day the huntsman was chasing a roe. The animal turned from the wood into the open and he followed it and finally shot it. He did not notice that he was now in the neighbourhood of the dangerous mill-pond, and so, after touching the animal, he went to the water to wash the blood off his hands. He had scarcely dipped them in, when the fairy rose, flung her wet arms around him laughing, and dragged him down so quickly, that in a moment the waters had closed over him and all was again still.

When the evening came on and the huntsman did not return, his wife became alarmed. She went out to look for him, and as he had so often spoken to her of his fear of going near the mill-pond lest the fairy should by her wiles get possession of him, she suspected what had happened. She hastened to the waters, and her worst suspicions were confirmed when she saw her husband's hunting-pouch lying on the bank. Wailing and wringing her hands, she called her beloved one by name, but in vain; she ran to the further side of the pond, and again called him; she poured angry abuse on the fairy, but still no answer came. The surface of the pond remained unstirred by a single ripple, and only the reflection of the half moon looked calmly up at her from the water.

The poor wife would not leave the pond; she walked round and round it without rest or pause, sometimes in