This time too at mid-day, after Betty had had her food, the maiden appeared.
They danced till the sun went down.
Betty then looked at her undone work and again miserable.
The maiden smiled at Betty. “Give me your basket.”
Betty did as she was told and the maiden disappeared for a second. She came back in a moment and handed over the basket to Betty. “Do not look into the basket now. Look into it, after you have gone home.”
Immediately after the maiden had said this, the maiden disappeared as if she had been blown away by the wind.
Betty took her basket and she did not dare look into it immediately.
However, Betty was half-way home and she could not curb her curiosity.
The basket was light and Betty wondered whether the maiden has tricked her.
Finally when Betty looked into the basket, she was sad because it had nothing but birch leaves.
Betty was angry with herself for believing the maiden and in anger she threw away two handfuls of leaves from her basket.
She was about to empty the basket when she realized that she could give the leaves to her goat.
So she left some of the leaves in the basket and walked home.
But Betty was again afraid because she had not done any work for the day.
The goats also wondered why their shepherdess was not cheerful as always.
Betty slowly came home and found her mother waiting for her.
Adapted from Slavonic Folktales
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