ig enough to hold her altogether, but she
peeped out, and her pretty head was reflected in the clear water.

Then there appeared, not a wolf, but a creature quite as wicked and
quite as ugly. Let us see who this creature was.

X

Not far from the fountain there lived a family of bricklayers. Now,
fifteen years before this time, the father in walking through the forest
found a little girl, who had been deserted by the gypsies. He carried
her home to his wife, and the good woman was sorry for her, and brought
her up with her own sons. As she grew older, the little gypsy became
much more remarkable for strength and cunning than for sense or beauty.
She had a low forehead, a flat nose, thick lips, coarse hair, and a skin
not golden like that of Zizi, but the colour of clay.

As she was always being teased about her complexion, she got as noisy
and cross as a titmouse. So they used to call her Titty.

Titty was often sent by the bricklayer to fetch water from the fountain,
and as she was very proud and lazy the gypsy disliked this very much.

It was she who had frightened Zizi by appearing with her pitcher on her
shoulder. Just as she was stooping to fill it, she saw reflected in the
water the lovely image of the Princess.

'What a pretty face!' she exclaimed, 'Why, it must be mine! How in the
world can they call me ugly? I am certainly much too pretty to be their
water carrier!'

So saying, she broke her pitcher and went home.

'Where is your pitcher?' asked the bricklayer.

'Well, what do you expect? The pitcher may go many times to the
well....'

'But at last it is broken. Well, here is a bucket that will not break.'

The gypsy returned to the fountain, and addressing once more the image
of Zizi, she said:

'No; I don't mean to be a beast of burden any longer.' And she flung the
bucket so high in the air that it stuck in the branches of an oak.

'I met a wolf,' she told the bricklayer, 'and I broke the bucket across
his nose.'

The bricklayer asked her no more questions, but took down a broom and
gave her such a beating that her pride was humbled a little.

Then he handed to her an old copper milk-can, and said:

'If you don't bring it back full, your bones shall suffer for it.'

XI

Titty went off rubbing her sides; but this time she did not dare to
disobey, and in a very bad temper stooped down over the well. It was not
at all easy to fill the milk-can, which was large and round. It would