aven, the rustling of the trees, a dead branch broken by the wind,
everything frightened her. She looked tremblingly about her, and saw
an old oak by the side of the fountain whose huge trunk offered her a
shelter. She climbed the tree and hid herself in it, all but her
lovely face, which, encircled by the foliage, was reflected in the
transparent fountain as in a clear mirror.

[Illustration: HE INSTANTLY GAVE HER THE WATER, WHEN, LO! A BEAUTIFUL,
SLENDER YOUNG GIRL STOOD BEFORE HIM]

Now there was a negress, by the name of Lucy, who lived in the
neighborhood, and who was sent every day by her mistress to the
fountain for water. Lucy came, as usual, with her pitcher on her
shoulder, and just as she was about to fill it, she spied the image of
the fairy in the spring. The fool, who had never seen herself, thought
that the face was her own. "Poor Lucy!" she cried. "What! you, so
fresh and beautiful, are forced by your mistress to carry water like a
beast of burden! No, never!" And in her vanity she dashed the pitcher
to the ground and returned home.

When her mistress asked her why she had broken the pitcher, the slave
shrugged her shoulders and said, "The pitcher that goes often to the
well is soon broken." Upon this her mistress gave her a little wooden
cask and ordered her to go back immediately and fill it at the
fountain.

The negress ran to the spring, and, gazing lovingly at the beautiful
image in the water, sighed and said, "No, I am not an ape, as I am so
often told; I am more beautiful than my mistress. Mules may carry
casks--not I!" She dashed the cask on the ground, broke it in a
thousand pieces, and returned to her mistress, grumbling.

"Where is the cask?" asked her mistress, who was waiting impatiently
for the water.

"A mule ran against me and knocked it down, and it is all broken to
pieces."

At these words her mistress lost patience. Seizing a broom, she gave
the negress one of those lessons that are not soon forgotten; then,
taking down a leathern bottle that was hanging on the wall, "Run,
wretched ape," she said; "and if you do not instantly bring this back
to me full of water, I will beat you within an inch of your life."

The negress took to her heels in terror, and filled the bottle
obediently; but when it was filled she stopped to look once more in
the fountain; and seeing the lovely face reflected there, "No!" she
cried, in a burst of anger--"no, I will not be a water-carrier; no, I
wa