"Compadre," the evil one would ask his good friend, "why don't you tell me where this tree is? The ogres will be there soon; maybe I can also be rich like you. But above all, I hope the fairies will straighten my back."
The kind-hearted woodcutter took pity on his friend and agreed to do as he asked. On the morning of the day set for the meeting of the ogres, the good woodcutter took his friend to the tree. The mean hunchback, without even thanking his kind companion, climbed the tree and set himself to await the arrival of the ogres and the fairies.
Before the fairies arrived, the earth and the rocks trembled as in the previous occasion and the ogres met under the tree.
"Amigos", said the largest ogre, "there is a traitor amongst us. Someone has cured the blindness of my subjects. We were the only ones who know what was said here a year ago; it must be one of us."
"It wasn't I," said the second, "because in my kingdom the dumb can now talk."
"And my previously deaf people can now hear," called in anger the third. "A woodcutter came to my kingdom and cured everyone."
"He was the one that cured my subjects!" exclaimed the other two ogres.
The fairies appeared then, singing and dancing. Their fear of the ogres was forgotten.
Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday three
Thursday and Friday and Saturday six.
The hunchback, who had seen the fairies come out, was impatient to add to the song, hoping that his hump would be removed. When the fairies reached the word "six" the hunchback yelled the first thing that came to his mind:
"And Sunday seven!"
For an instant the ogres and the fairies stood as if carved from stone. Recovering their faculties in an instant, the fairies exclaimed, "Our song has been ruined!" Then they disappeared.
The ogres by this time had also looked around. Yelling "There is the traitor!" they reached into the tree and brought down the hunchback.
"And so it was you, insignificant spider, who revealed our secrets! Well, take this!" And the ogres decorated the back of the hunchback with another hump. |
