Not far from the fountain lived a family of bricklayers.
Fifteen years back the father in the family had found a baby abandoned near the fountain and he had taken pity and taken the baby home.
His wife had also taken pity on the baby and brought it up as her own.
This baby was a girl and it was given the name Titty.
Titty was brought up as one of the family of bricklayers.
However Titty did not like working very hard like the others in her family. She very often shirked her responsibility.
It was to make sure that Titty started working that her father made it a point to send her to the fountain everyday to fetch water for the household chores.
Today as Titty had come near the fountain she was shocked to see a beautiful face reflected in the waters of the fountain. As soon as she saw the face she grew careless and she let the mud pot in her hand break.
She went back home and told her father the reason that she could not bring the water - that the mud pot had broken.
She did not tell her father or anyone else in her family about the beautiful face that she had seen in the waters.
Her father sent her to the fountain and this time he gave her a bucket to fill the water from the fountain.
Titty was not successful the second time because this time too she had seen the beautiful face reflected in the water.
It was the third time that when her father gave her copper can that Titty had properly filled the water in the can and was about to carry it back when she saw the girl hidden in the hollow tree.
“Who are you?” Titty was amazed as she studied the pretty face.
“I am Zizi.” The Princess told the young girl.
“What are you doing here?”
“I am waiting for Prince Desire to bring me a carriage to take me back to his castle.” Princess Zizi had not suspected anything wrong, nor did she know that people could use this information again her and she had honestly answered this question.
When Titty heard this she realized that she had just found a beautiful reason to take up the place of Zizi and live a life of luxury for the rest of her life.
Adapted from Andrew Lang’s Red Fairy Tale Book
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