Tales of the Paddock

I.

Once upon a time there was a little child to whom his mother gave a bowl of milk and lumps of bread every afternoon, and the child sat down with it in the yard. But when it started to eat, the house toad came crawling out of a crack in the wall, lowered its little head into the milk and ate with it. The child enjoyed it, and when it sat there with its little bowl, and the toad did not come immediately, it called out to it, 'Toad, toad, come quickly, come here, you little thing, you shall have your little crumb, feast on the milk'. Then the toad came running and enjoyed it. It also showed its gratitude, for it brought the child all kinds of beautiful things from its secret treasure, shiny stones, pearls and golden toys. But the toad drank only milk and left the lumps lying around. Then the child took his spoon and gently hit her on the head and said, "Thing, eat the lumps too. The mother, who was standing in the kitchen, heard that the child was talking to someone, and when she saw that he was hitting a toad with his spoon, she ran out with a log and killed the good animal.

From that time on, a change occurred in the child. As long as the owl had eaten with him, he had grown big and strong, but now he lost his beautiful red cheeks and became thin. Not long after, the bird of death began to scream in the night, and the little red hawk gathered twigs and leaves to make a death wreath, and soon after, the child lay on the bier.

II.

An orphan child was sitting at the city wall and was stretching, when he saw a toad coming out of an opening at the bottom of the wall. Quickly he spread out his blue silk scarf next to him, which the owls love enormously and on which they go alone. As soon as the toad saw it, it turned around, came back and brought a small golden crown, put it on it and went away again. The girl took up the crown, it glittered and was of delicate gold spun. Not long after, the toad came back a second time, but when it no longer saw the crown, it crawled up against the wall and banged its head against it in grief for as long as it had strength left, until it finally lay there dead. If the girl had left the crown, the owl would probably have brought more of her treasures from the cave.

III.

Unke calls 'huhu, huhu,' child speaks 'come here'. The toad comes out, then the child asks for his little sister 'haven't you seen Rothstrümpfchen?' Unke says 'ne, ik og nit: wie du denn? huhu, huhu, huhu.'