“Don’t you see,” said Mr. Thimblefinger, with apparent seriousness, “that if we hadn’t left off the story of the little girl who went to the Well at the End of the World just where we did, she would have had no time to grow?”  
Buster John smiled faintly, but Sweetest Susan took the statement seriously, though she said nothing. Drusilla boldly indorsed it.
 
“I speck¹ dat’s so,” she said, “kaze when de lil’ gal² got back home wid dat vial she wa’n’t in no fix fer ter cut up dem kind er capers³ what de tales tell about.”
 
“Certainly not,” remarked Mr. Thimblefinger, “but now she has had time to grow up to be a young lady, almost. Names go for so little down here that I haven’t told you hers. She was named Eolen. Some said it was a beautiful name, but her stepmother and her stepmother’s daughter said it was very ugly. Anyhow, that was her name, and whether it was ugly or whether it was beautiful, she had to make the best of it.
 
“Well, Eolen went home when the old man gave her the vial of water from the Well at the End of the World. She hid the vial beneath her apron⁴ until she reached her own room, and then she placed it at the very bottom of her little trunk,—a trunk that had belonged to her mother, who was dead.
 
“Nothing happened for a long time. Whenever Friday fell on the thirteenth of a month, Eolen would rub a drop of the sparkling water on her forehead, and she grew to be the loveliest young lady that ever was seen. Her stepsister was not bad-looking, but, compared with Eolen, she was ugly. The contrast between them was so great that people could not help noticing it and making remarks about it. Some of these remarks came to the ears of her stepmother.
 
“Now a stepmother can be just as nice and as good as anybody, but this particular stepmother cared for nothing except her own child, and she soon came to hate Eolen for being so beautiful. She had never treated the child kindly⁵, but now she began to treat her cruelly. Eolen never told her father, but somehow he seemed to know what was going on, and he treated her more affectionately each day, as her stepmother grew more cruel.
 
“This lasted for some time, but finally Eolen’s father fell ill and died, and then, although she had many admirers, she was left without a friend she could confide⁶ in or rely on. To make matters worse, her stepmother produced a will in which her husband had left everything to her and nothing to Eolen. The poor girl didn’t know what to do. She knew that her father had made no such will, but how could she prove it? She happened to think of the vial of sparkling waters. She found it and turned it upside down.
 
“On the instant there was a loud knock at the street door. Eolen would have gone to open it, but her stepmother was there before her. She peeped from behind the curtains in the hallway, and saw a tall, richly-dressed stranger standing⁷ on the steps.
 
“‘I wish to see a young lady who lives here. She is the daughter of an old friend,’ said the stranger.
 
“The stepmother smiled very sweetly. ‘Come in. I will call her.’
 
“But instead of calling Eolen she called her own daughter. The girl went, but not with a good grace. She had been petted and spoiled, and was very saucy⁸ and impolite. The stranger smiled when he saw her.
 
“‘What was my mother doing when you saw her sitting by the Well at the End of the World?’ he asked.
 
“‘Do you take me for a crazy person?’ replied the girl.
 
“‘By no means,’ said the stranger. ‘You are not the young lady I came to see.’
 
“The stepmother then called Eolen and stood in the room frowning to see what was going to happen. Eolen came as soon as she was called, and the stranger seemed to be much struck by her beauty and modesty⁹. He took her by the hand and led her to a chair.
 
“‘What was my mother doing when you saw her sitting by the Well at the End of the World?’ he asked.
 
“‘She was combing her hair,’ replied Eolen.
 
“‘That is true,’ remarked the stranger. ‘Yes, she was combing her hair.’ Then he turned to the stepmother and said: ‘May I see this young lady alone for a little while? I have a message for her from an old friend.’
 
“‘Certainly!’ the stepmother answered. ‘I hope her friend is well-to-do, for her father has died without leaving her so much as a farthing.’ Having said this, the stepmother flounced from the room.
 
“‘I came at your summons,’ said the stranger; ‘you turned the vial of sparkling water upside down, and now I am here to do your bidding.’
 
“Then Eolen told him of the death of her father, and how he had left all of his property to her stepmother. The stranger listened attentively¹⁰, and while he listened played with a heavy gold ring that he wore on his third finger. When Eolen was through with her story he took this ring from his finger and handed it to her.
 
“‘Look through that,’ he said, ‘and tell me what you see.’
 
“Eolen held the ring to one of her eyes, and peeped through the golden circle. She was so surprised that she came near dropping the ring. She had held it up toward the stranger, but instead of seeing him through the ring she seemed to be looking into a room in which some person was moving about. As she continued to look, the scene appeared to be a familiar one. The room was the one her stepmother occupied—the room in which her father had died. She saw her stepmother take from her father’s private drawer a folded paper and hide it behind the mantel. Then the scene vanished, and through the ring she saw the stranger smiling at her.
 
“‘What you have seen happened some time ago.’ He took the ring and replaced it on his finger. ‘Your stepmother is now coming this way. She has been trying to hear what we are saying. When she comes in, do you get your father’s real will from behind the mantel and bring it to me.’
 
“Sure enough the stepmother came into the room silently and suddenly. She pretended to be much surprised to find any one there.
 
“‘You must excuse me,’ she said to the stranger. ‘I imagined I heard you take your leave some time ago.’
 
“‘You are excusable,’ replied the stranger. ‘I have been reflecting rather than talking. I have been thinking what could be done for your stepdaughter, who must be quite a burden to you.’
 
“The stepmother took this for an invitation to tell what she knew about Eolen, and you may be sure she didn’t waste any praise on the young lady. But right in the midst of it all Eolen, who had gone out, returned and handed the stranger the folded paper that had been hid behind the mantel. The stepmother recognized it and turned pale.
 
“‘This,’ said the stranger, opening the paper and reading it at a glance, ‘is your father’s will. I see he has left you half the property.’
 
“‘That is the will my husband forgot to destroy,’ cried the stepmother. ‘I have the real will.’
 
“‘May I see it?’ asked the stranger.
 
“The stepmother ran to fetch it, but when the stranger had opened it, not a line nor a word of writing could be found on it.
 
“‘I see you are fond of a joke,’ said the stranger, but the stepmother had fallen into a chair and sat with her face hid in her hands. ‘I am fond of a joke myself,’ continued the stranger, ‘and I think I can match yours.’
 
“With that the stranger took the real will, tore it in small pieces and threw it into the fireplace.
 
“‘What have you done?’ cried Eolen.
 
“‘The most difficult thing in the world,’ replied the stranger; ‘I have made this lady happy.’
 
“And sure enough the stepmother was smiling and thanking him.
 
“‘I thought you were my enemy,’ she said, ‘but now I see you are my friend indeed. How can I repay you?’
 
“‘By treating this young lady here as your daughter,’ he replied. ‘Have no fear,’ he said, turning to Eolen. ‘No harm can befall you. What I have done is for the best.’
 
“But before he went away he gave Eolen the gold ring, and told her to wear it for the sake of his mother, who sat by the Well at the End of the World. She thanked him for his kindness and promised she would keep the ring and treasure it as long as she lived.
 
“But there was one trouble with this magic ring. It was too large for any of Eolen’s fingers. She had the whitest and most beautiful hands ever seen, but the ring would fit none of her fingers. Around her neck she wore a necklace of coral beads¹¹, and on this necklace she hung the ring.
 
“For many day’s Eolen’s stepmother was kind to her, almost too kind. But the woman was afraid her stepdaughter would inform the judges of her effort to steal and hide her husband’s will. The judges were very severe in those days and in that country, and if the woman had been brought before them and such a crime proven on her, she would have been sent to the rack.”
 
“What is a rack?” asked Sweetest Susan.
 
“Hit’s de place whar dey scrunch¹² folks’s ve’y vitals out’n ’em,” said Drusilla solemnly.
 
“That’s about right, I reckon,” assented¹³ Mr. Thimblefinger. “Well, the stepmother was as kind to Eolen as she knew how to be, but the kindness didn’t last long. She hated her stepdaughter worse than ever. She was afraid of her, but she didn’t hate her any the less on that account.
 
“Eolen had a habit of taking off her coral necklace and placing it under her pillow at night. One night, when she was fast asleep, her stepmother crept into the room and slipped the ring from the necklace. She had no idea it was a magic ring. She said to herself that it would look better on her daughter’s finger than it did on Eolen’s coral necklace, so she took the ring and slipped it on the finger of her sleeping daughter, and then stepped back a little to admire the big golden circle on the coarse, red hand.
 
“Almost immediately the daughter began to toss and tumble in her sleep. She flung her arms wildly about and tried to talk. The mother, becoming alarmed, tried to wake her, but it was some time before the girl could be roused from her troubled sleep.
 
“‘Oh!’ she cried, when she awoke, ‘what is the matter with me? I dreamed some one was cutting my finger off. What was it? Oh! it hurts me still!’
 
“She held up the finger on which her mother had placed the ring and tried to tear off the golden band. ‘It burns—it burns!’ she cried. ‘Take it off.’
 
“Her mother tried to take the ring off, but it was some time before she succeeded. Her daughter struggled and cried so that it was a hard matter to remove the ring, which seemed to be as hot as fire. A red blister¹⁴ was left on the girl’s finger, and she was in great pain.
 
 
“‘What have I done?’ the mother cried, seeing her daughter’s condition. The two made so much noise that Eolen awoke and went to the door to find out what the trouble was.
 
“‘Go away, you hussy!’ screamed the stepmother when she saw Eolen at the door. ‘Go away! You are a witch!’
 
“‘Why, what have I done?’ Eolen asked.
 
“‘You are the cause of all this trouble. For amusement I placed your gold ring on my dear daughter’s finger, and now see her condition!’
 
“‘Why, then, did you take my ring? If you had left it where I placed it, you would have had none of this trouble.’ Eolen spoke¹⁵ with so much dignity that her stepmother was surprised into silence, though she could talk faster and louder than a flutter-mill. But finally she found her voice.
 
“‘Go away! You are a witch!’ she said to Eolen.
 
“But Eolen went boldly into the room. ‘Give me my ring!’ she exclaimed. ‘You shall wrong me no further. Give me my ring! I will have it!’
 
“This roused the stepmother’s temper. She searched on the floor till she found the ring. Then she opened a window and flung it as far as she could send it.
 
“‘Now let’s see you get it!’ she cried. With that she seized Eolen by the arm and pushed her from the room, saying, ‘Go away, you witch!’
 
“Now, then,” said Mr. Thimblefinger, after pausing to take breath, “what was the poor girl to do?” He looked at Sweetest Susan as if expecting her to answer the question.
 
“I’m sure I don’t know,” replied Sweetest Susan.
 
“Shake up de bottle,” exclaimed Drusilla.
 
“Exactly so,” said Mr. Thimblefinger.