The same thing took place every day , and never had the cow-house been so clean nor the cows so fat . Morning and evening Barbaik found her earthen pots full of milk and a pound of butter freshly churned , ornamented with leaves . At the end of a few weeks she grew so used to this state of affairs that she only got up just in time to prepare breakfast . Soon even this grew to be unnecessary , for a day arrived when , coming downstairs , she discovered that the house was swept , the furniture polished , the fire lit , and the food ready , so that she had nothing to do except to ring the great bell which summoned the labourers from the fields to come and eat it . This , also , she thought was the work of Jegu , and she could not help feeling that a husband of this sort would be very useful to a girl who liked to lie in bed and to amuse herself . Indeed , Barbaik had only to express a wish for it to be satisfied . If the wind was cold or the sun was hot and she was afraid to go out lest her complexion should be spoilt , she need only to run down to the spring close by and say softly , ' I should like my churns to be full , and my wet linen to be stretched on the hedge to dry , ' and she need never give another thought to the matter . If she found the rye bread too hard to bake , or the oven taking too long to heat , she just murmured , ' I should like to see my six loaves on the shelf above the bread box , ' and two hours after there they were . If she was too lazy to walk all the way to market along a dirty road , she would say out loud the night before , ` Why am I not already back from Morlaix with my milk pot empty , my butter bowl inside it , a pound of wild cherries on my wooden plate , and the money I have gained in my apron pocket ? ' and in the morning when she got up , lo and behold ! there were standing at the foot of her bed the empty milk pot with the butter bowl inside , the black cherries on the wooden plate , and six new pieces of silver in the pocket of her apron . And she believed that all this was owing to Jegu , and she could no longer do without him , even in her thoughts . When things had reached this pass , the brownie told the young man that he had better ask Barbaik to marry him , and this time the girl did not turn rudely away , but listened patiently to the end . In her eyes he was as ugly and awkward as ever , but he would certainly make a most useful husband , and she could sleep every morning till breakfast time , just like a young lady , and as for the rest of the day , it would not be half long enough for all she meant to do . She would wear the beautiful dresses that came when she wished for them , and visit her neighbours , who would be dying of envy all the while , and she would be able to dance as much as she wished . Jegu would always be there to work for her and save for her , and watch over her . So , like a well-brought-up girl , Barbaik answered that it should be as her father pleased , knowing quite well that old Riou had often said that after he was dead there was no one so capable of carrying on the farm . The marriage took place the following month , and a few days later the old man died quite suddenly . Now Jegu had everything to see to himself , and somehow it did not seem so easy as when the farmer was alive . But once more the brownie stepped in , and was better than ten labourers .
It was he who ploughed and sowed and reaped , and if , as happened , occasionally , it was needful to get the work done quickly , the brownie called XXXXX some of his friends , and as soon as it was light a host of little dwarfs might have been seen in the fields , busy with hoe , fork or sickle .
If at by for in like of than till with