Once upon a time, there lived a man named Thomas the lumberjack.
A lumberjack is someone who cuts wood.
Thomas was a big man with bushy red hair and a bushy red beard.
Every day with a large wooden ax upon his shoulder, Thomas went deep into the woods to cut down trees.
After working hard all day long, Thomas had a mighty thirst.
He decided to get a drink.
He walked toward the sound of the water, and through the trees he saw a waterfall.
It was falling into a deep, mysterious pond.
Thomas laid his wooden ax down on a rock near the edge of the pond and bent down to get a drink.
As he bent down to get a drink, he heard something. Splash!
He looked up and saw a large green frog swimming in the pond, and he laughed.
"Ha-ha-ha. It was only a frog.
I thought my ax had fallen into the pond."
He took one more drink from the fresh water and reached for his ax, but it was gone.
He looked around. He scratched his bushy red beard and said, "Where is my ax?"
He looked at the frog. "Did you take my ax?" But the frog quickly swam away.
The pond looked very deep, and Thomas the lumberjack didn't know how to swim.
He was just about to give up hope of getting back his ax when a golden-haired sprite swam up out of the pond.
"Is this silver ax yours?" she asked.
Thomas was startled, "Who are you?"
"I'm a water sprite. Is this silver ax yours?" she repeated.
"I heard something fall into the pond."
"No, I had a simple ax made of wood," Thomas answered.
The sprite dove back into the pond, and Thomas sat down.
"How can I be a lumberjack without an ax?" he thought.
While he was thinking, the sprite returned.
"Is this gold ax yours?"
"What? Gold! I'm sorry, no. I had a simple ax made of wood," he said.
The water sprite dove back down into the pond.
She wasn't gone long when she returned. "Is this wooden ax yours?"
Thomas looked at the ax and smiled because it was surely the ax he had lost.
"Yes, that's mine. It's a simple ax made of wood."
The sprite gave the ax to Thomas and laughed.
Still giggling she said, "You are a very honest man.
I will give you the silver and gold axes as a reward for your honesty."
Thomas didn't know what to say, but before leaving, he remembered his manners.
"Thank you," he said.
The next day, Thomas told his landlord what had happened at the pond.
The landlord was a very greedy man, so he took an old wooden ax from the shed, went to the pond, and threw the ax into the water.
He waited for the water sprite to come, and after a while she did.
"Is this your silver ax?" she asked.
"Yes, it is," the landlord replied. "It must have fallen in the pond."
The water sprite frowned and looked at the greedy landlord.
"You are a liar. This is not your silver ax."
The landlord said, "Yes, yes it . . ."
Before the landlord could finish his sentence the sprite continued, "I collect people who lie.
It's my hobby. Do you know how to swim?"
The landlord knew how to swim, but he was suddenly afraid, so he lied again.
"No, I don't know how to swim."
The sprite smiled coldly. "Thank you for lying again.
Since you say you cannot swim, I will change you into a frog."
There was a blinding flash of white light, and where the landlord had stood was a large green frog.