Will you lend us one?"
"Shall I loan one of our saucepans to the Hillman, mistress?" the
maid-servant asked.
"Oh, yes, I suppose it is wiser to be neighborly with them," the
housewife replied.
So the maid-servant went over to the side of the kitchen where the
pots hung on the wall to get a saucepan down. There was a fine supply
to choose from, large and small, polished copper and brass, iron, and
shining tin. But just as the maid-servant put out her hand to take one
of their best saucepans, the housewife whispered to her.
"Not that one!" she said. "Give him the old one that leaks, and hangs
there at the end. The Hillmen are tidy little folk and very nimble
with a job of tinkering. They'll have to mend it before they use it
and so it will come home whole. We can oblige the Fairy Folk and save
sixpence at the same time."
The maid-servant was sorry to do her mistress's bidding, for it was
the oldest and blackest saucepan of all, hung there to wait for the
next time when the tinker stopped at the house. She gave it to the
little Hillman, though, who thanked her and went off with the leaky
saucepan hung over his back.
One morning, not long after that, they found the saucepan, returned,
on the doorstep. It was neatly mended, ready for use.
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