The young Witch, a retelling

Minerva the witch was very versatile. She could shapeshift and do wonderous things while she flew around pretending to be this person or that thing. She could make her broom grow arms and transport her in style instead of sitting quite unladylike upon a flying stick.

Now Minerva had decided that she needed a young pretty apprentice who could also be a sister to her, she was lonely and wanted someone to assist her and be her friend. She had taken to observing the couple who lived over yonder hill and who had two lovely daughters. One daughter seemed quite amenable, kind and sweet. The other daughter was disagreeable, sullen and seemed to hate everybody and everything.

One day she heard the good kind daughter ask permission to go seek her fortune. Her mother agreed and daughter Uno set out on her way.

Minerva decided to set a test for the girl and watch to see what happened. As Uno walked, she came upon an oven full of bread. They were done baking and needed to be removed from the oven. Uno obliged the bread, placed them on the provided table, in the middle of nowhere, and continued on her way.

She eventually met a cow that needed milking, and apple tree that was in need of shaking and she was happy to assist them.

Eventually she arrived at Minerva's house. The witch shape shifted into a nice elderly lady and invited Uno to stay as long as she liked and have whatever she liked. She could only leave with one thing though, all except the little music box that played heavenly calming music.

"Choose carefully my dear, for that one thing will determine the rest of your life".

Uno picked all the beautiful things in the house, she stayed for a week. There were so many wonderful things in the pretty little house. Yet all Uno wanted was the music box.

One day when the witch went to get some frogs legs for her cauldron dinner, Uno took the music box and fled. Upon returning, and finding the box gone, the witch gave chase.

Meanwhile, Uno searched for the oven, the apple tree and the cow to help her hide herself. Unfortunately for poor Uno, it had been the witch who had transformed herself into those things in order to test her mettle. The witch turned her into a tiny lady and set her as a pretty little spinning marionette inside the music box.

When not a word was heard from Uno, her mother then sent her sister Dos to go and search for her. Dos complained and griped and told them she was not her sister's keeper.

"Why should I have to go look for her, I didn't tell her to go off on her own. What if something bad happened to her, and the same should happen to me". She complained and griped.

"You too should go seek your fortune, you unruly girl. It is time for you to leave home anyway. You are lazy, ungrateful and always complaining. A little adventure is exactly what you need".

So Dos got mad and decided that she did not need the nagging. Gladly, she set forth to seek herself her own life.

Minerva clapped her hands with glee upon observing Dos huffing her way into the world.

Dos came upon bread in the oven, she told bread to take a hike, while sticking a loaf into her bag. The apple tree asked for help, she took some, tossed them into her bag and didn't give tree the time of day. The cow she did milk a bit, but just enough to quench her thirst. The poor cow was laden down with so much milk she moo'ed in pain.

Dos finally came to the witch's house. The elderly lady let her in and told her the same as she had told her sister. Dos looked closely at the dancer in the box, odd, she thought, that it looked so much like her sister. For that very reason, she had no interest in the stupid music box. Also, the nice lady said not to take it. All her life she had been compared to her goody two shoes sister Uno, well not anymore.

At the end of a week, Dos chose a tiny beautiful replica of a witch upon a broomstick. Bid the old lady goodbye and went on her way. She had felt strangely at home here.

"I wish I were a witch upon a broomstick. I could go wherever I want and do whatever I want". She said out loud as she walked.

No sooner were the words uttered than she found herself upon the broom flying high into the sky. Minerva jumped on her broom and joined Dos who flew so awkwardly, she feared that she would fall off. After a bit she steadied herself and completely enjoyed her first solo flight on her broom.

Minerva guided her to an apple tree and they both had a very interesting chat. She invited Dos to live with her and learn all the ways of witching.

"But if you were the oven, the apple tree and the cow, I was not very nice and helpful". Dos felt very ashamed.

"I don't need a perfect friend, my dear, I need an honest one. The dancer in the music box is your sister, she will be punished for her dishonesty for a full year, dancing and learning her lesson. She can see and hear us quite well".

After a year Uno was allowed to go home, she promised never to be dishonest again.

Dos and her new friend lived happily ever after.

Now she very much enjoyed the dancer-less music from the lovely music box.

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The real story.

The Old Witch is an English fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in his 1894 book, More English Fairy Tales. It is also included within A Book of Witches by Ruth Manning-Sanders and A Book of British Fairy Tales by Alan Garner.

The Old Witch

Once there was a couple who had two daughters, but their father had no work. The daughters wanted to seek their fortune, and one said she would go into service. Her mother said she could, if she could find a place.

The daughter searched but, unable to find anything, eventually came upon an oven full of bread. The bread begged the girl to take it out and she obeyed. The girl continued and eventually came to a cow that begged her to milk it which she did. An apple tree that begged her to shake down its apples which she did.

Continuing her search, the girl came upon an old witch's house and the old witch set her to clean the house, but forbade her to ever look up the chimney. One day, she did just that and bags of money fell down. The girl immediately gathered them up and fled.

Realizing what the girl had done, the old witch chased her. Each time the old witch came close to grabbing her, the apple tree and the cow hid her. When the girl came to the oven, it hid her behind it and tricked the old witch into entering, trapping her for a long time. The girl used her obtained bag of money to marry a wealthy man.

Her sister decided to try the same thing, but instead she refused to help the oven, the cow, and the apple tree. When she stole the gold, the apple tree refused to hide her and the old witch caught her, beat her, and took back the bag of money.

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