The cow-tender said that she did not mind fetching it herself, if he would let her down.

The elder laughed at her, and said:

“Well, let us go! You have an empty stomach now, so I shall be able to hold you up, for after dinner I could not do it.”

The elder tied a stick to a rope, and the woman sat astride it, took hold of the rope, and began to climb down into the well, while the elder turned the well-wheel. The well was about twenty feet deep, and there was less than three feet of water in it. The elder let her down slowly, and kept asking:

“A little more?”

And the cow-tender cried from below:

“Just a little more!”