Week 14 Reading A: The Waternick

•  Two children with a widowed mother
• Children sent off to get firewood, used wool thread to mark the trail home
• Wild creatures broke the thread and they were lost in the forest
• Found a pond and walked around it
• Waternick finds children, takes them to his home by force
• Waternick and his wife enslave the children as servants and put them to work for years
• When Waternick leaves to catch human souls one day, wife falls asleep and children realize that they can try to escape
• First attempt to run while she sleeps fails, she catches them
• Waternick then puts the children to work felling trees, but the tools he gives them break
• Waternick forgets to give them another task for the next day
• Children release all the souls that the Waternicks caught
• Next attempt to escape works, and children get out of the pond before the wife catches them
• Children fall asleep and forester finds them, returns them to their mother
• Happy ending, live together for the rest of their lives

Bibliography: The Waternick from The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis. Web Source.


Image: Underwater view in Dumbea river in the vicinity of Nakutakoin from IHA. Web Source.