The Rooster's Beam

Once upon a time there was a magician who stood in the middle of a large crowd of people and performed his wonders. Then he also had a rooster strut in, which lifted a heavy beam and carried it as if it were feather-light. But there was a girl who had just found a four-leaf clover and had thereby become clever, so that no deception could stand before her, and she saw that the beam was nothing but a straw. So she called out, "Hey people, don't you see, that's just a straw and not a beam that the rooster is carrying." Immediately the spell vanished, and the people saw what it was and drove the sorcerer away with abuse and disgrace. But he, full of inner rage, said, "I'll get my revenge." After some time the girl held her wedding, was dressed up, and went in a large procession across the field to the place where the church stood. Suddenly they came to a greatly swollen stream, and there was no bridge and no footbridge to cross it. Then the bride was quick, lifted up her clothes, and wanted to wade through. Just as she was standing in the water like that, a man called out, and that was the magician, right beside her quite mockingly, "Hey! where are your eyes that you take this for water?" Then her eyes were opened, and she saw that with her lifted clothes she was standing in the middle of a blue-flowering flax field. Then the people all saw it too and drove her away with abuse and laughter.